Current advances of stem cell-based therapy for kidney diseases

Kidney diseases are a prevalent health problem around the world.Multidrug therapy used in the current routine treatment for kidney diseases can only delay disease progression.None of these drugs or treatments can reverse the progression to an end-stage of the disease.Therefore,it is crucial to explore novel therapeutics to improve patients’quality of life and possibly cure,reverse,or alleviate the kidney disease.Stem cells have promising potentials as a form of regenerative medicine for kidney diseases due to their unlimited replication and their ability to differentiate into kidney cells in vitro.Mounting evidences from the administration of stem cells in an experimental kidney disease model suggested that stem cell-based therapy has therapeutic or renoprotective effects to attenuate kidney damage while improving the function and structure of both glomerular and tubular compartments.This review summarises the current stem cell-based therapeutic approaches to treat kidney diseases,including the various cell sources,animal models or in vitro studies.The challenges of progressing from proof-of-principle in the laboratory to widespread clinical application and the human clinical trial outcomes reported to date are also highlighted.The success of cell-based therapy could widen the scope of regenerative medicine in the future.

Microenvironment of Liver Regeneration in Liver Cancer

The occurrence and development of liver cancer are essentially the most serious outcomes of uncontrolled liver regeneration. The progression of liver cancer is inevitably related to the abnormal microenvironment of liver regeneration. The deterioration observed in the microenvironment of liver regeneration is a necessary condition for the occurrence, development and metastasis of cancer. Therefore, the use of a technique to prevent and treat liver cancer via changes in the microenvironment of liver regeneration is a novel strategy. This strategy would be an effective way to delay, prevent or even reverse cancer occurrence, development and metastasis through an improvement in the liver regeneration microenvironment along with the integrated regulation of multiple components, targets, levels, channels and time sequences. In addition, the treatment of ＂tonifying Shen（Kidney） to regulate liver regeneration and repair by affecting stem cells and their microenvironment＂ can regulate ＂the dynamic imbalance between the normal liver regeneration and the abnormal liver regeneration＂; this would improve the microenvironment of liver regeneration, which is also a mechanism by which liver cancer may be prevented or treated.

Role of adult resident renal progenitor cells in tubular repair after acute kidney injury

Acute kidney injury is a serious global health problem and determinant of morbidity and mortality. Recent advancements in the fi eld of stem cell research raise hopes for stem cell-based regenerative approaches to treat acute kidney diseases. In this review, the authors summarized the latest research advances of the adult resident renal progenitor cells（ARPCs） on kidney repair, the role of ARPCs on tubular regeneration after acute kidney injury, the current understanding of the mechanisms rela ted to ARPC activation and modulation, as well as the challenges that remain to be faced.