Therapeutic effects of human stem cells in experimentally induced acute kidney injury in rats

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of stem cell therapy in drug-induced acute kidney injury in rats. Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is defined as a rapid decrease in renal functions within few days; thus drug-induced AKI is a frequent entity in clinical medicine. Stem cell therapy provides a hopeful prospective for injured tissues and for repairing damaged organs. Materials and methods A total of 30 male Swiss albino rats were used in the present study. The animals were randomly divided into three groups. Group I: control group (10 rats). Group II: AKI group (10 rats), gentamicin-induced AKI rat models were used. Group III: stem-cell-treated AKI group (10 rats). Rats with established AKI were injected with CD34-positive stem cells. The three studied groups were assessed for serum urea, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, and kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1). At the end, all the rats were killed and their kidneys were excised for histopathology and immunohistochemical studies. Results Serum KIM-1 level was significantly higher in the AKI group in comparison with both control group and stem-cell-treated group (P = 0.001), whereas no statistically significant difference was found between control group and stem-cell-treated group regarding serum KIM-1 level (P = 0.755). The results of the immunohistopathological studies have shown no significant changes between control group and AKI-stem-cell-treated group. Conclusion This study showed that AKI markers improved after treatment by stem cells in AKI-induced group.