Treatment of acute tubular necrosis by autologous bone marrow stem cells transplantation through renal artery in the rabbits

AIM: To observe the effects and location of autologous bone marrow stem cells(BMSCs) transplanted through renal artery into ischemic-reperfusion(I/R) injured kidney.METHODS: BMSCs were collected from rabbits after isolated and then labeled with 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine(BrdU).Twenty-eight rabbits were subjected to clamping renal pedicles for 105 min and divided into the transplantation group and control group randomly.BrdU labeled BMSCs or saline were injected into the kidney by renal artery,respectively.Before and after I/R at the 1st,3rd, 5th,7th,14th,21th and 28th d,the venous blood was collected to measure serum Cr and BUN.In the same time,renal tissue was collected for pathological and immunohistochemical study.RESULTS: After I/R,serum Cr and BUN levels in the rabbits in two groups became higher,and on the 1st and 3rd d after I/R,reached the highest level.On the 7th d the serum Cr and BUN levels in transplantation group were lower than those in control group.On the 28th d the levels of serum Cr(90.1±11.1) μmol/L and BUN(8.0±1.5) mmol/L in transplantation group were significantly lower than those in control group(135.6±32.5) μmol/L and(10.9±2.5) mmol/L,respectively(P0.05).Pathological observation of renal tissue showed the degeneration,necrosis and abscission in renal tubular epithelial cells.The BrdU positive staining by immunohistochemical study was found in renal tubular in transplantation group on the 5th and 7th d after I/R,and maintained to the end of experiment,but no detection in control group.CONCLUSION: BMSCs transplantation through renal artery accelerates the repairment of renal functions after acute tubular necrosis by ischemic-reperfusion.Autologous BMSCs transplantation is a safe and valid method to accelerate the repairment after acute tubular necrosis.