Kidney: Current Research on Isolation or Production of Therapeutic Cells

The concept of a therapeutic cell for repairing or restoring kidney function in humans has vast appeal and enthusiasm because of the potential for cell-based therapies to treat millions of people with renal failure. The prevalence of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease is dramatically increasing worldwide because of remarkable increases in life span, the aging population, and the ever-growing rates of diabetes and hypertension. End-stage renal disease is incurable, requiring renal replacement therapy such as regular dialysis or a renal transplantation. While it is preferable to have a renal transplantation, limited availability of organs for transplantation severely restricts this option.

Identification of multipotent stem or progenitor cell populations is the first important step towards advancing therapeutic applications and also for understanding developmental processes to ...