Schena Francesco Paolo, Abbattista Maria Rosaria
Division of Nephrology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico, Bari, Italy.
J Nephrol. 2003 Nov-Dec;16 Suppl 7:S1-5.
Stem cells (SC) provide a way to repopulate damaged organs, to deliver genes or growth factors to privileged sites in the body after gene transfection and to reconstitute organs in vitro for transplantation. This reparative or regenerative medicine is currently used in the care of hematological and neoplastic diseases, but promising results have been obtained in the care of other diseases involving heart, arteries, liver and brain. SC have also been used in experimental models of mice with glomerulonephritis or with unilateral uretheral obstruction. SC may be involved in the care of damaged organs in two ways. Firstly, niche cells reside in privileged regions of an organ and are protected from environmental damage; their reproduction is asymmetric, some of them self-generate and others differentiate in the specific tissue for organ repair. Secondly, SC from bone marrow, in which multiple distinct types are present, repair the damaged organ. Data from experimental animal models of renal diseases have shown that infused bone marrow-derived SC may repair the injured glomeruli. However, we cannot exclude that niche adult SC may reside in the outer medulla of the kidney. Therefore, niche cells may be the El Dorado for promising care for renal diseases in the near future.
