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Doctors have learned to isolate kidney stem cells from urine

Anatoly Glossev, Vesti

Scientists isolated kidney stem cells from human urine and examined them. Doctors hope that a new source of stem cells will help many patients.

The achievement is described in a scientific article published in the journal Scientific Reports (Rahman et al., The FGF, TGFß and WNT axis Modulate Self-renewal of Human SIX2+ Urine Derived Renal Progenitor Cells).

Every ninth person in the world suffers from some kind of kidney disease. This is more than 850 million people in need of help. Not all ailments can be cured with medicines. Sometimes transplantation is required, and donor organs, as always, are not enough. A promising alternative to transplants is stem cell treatment.

As you know, stem cells differ in which tissue cells they can transform into. There are pluripotent cells that can become part of any tissue. There are more specialized cells that can become, for example, "bricks" of muscle or connective, but not nervous tissue. There are even more highly specialized "blanks".

The more specialized a stem cell is, the less likely it is that its development will go the wrong way. Kidneys would ideally be treated with precursor cells of kidney tissues. However, the question immediately arises where to get them.

Human kidneys have some stock of stem cells. To extract them, a biopsy is usually required. This is a surgical procedure with all the ensuing consequences.

Meanwhile, every day from two to seven thousand kidney cells leave our body with urine. In recent years, several research groups have reported that there are stem cells among these cells. Now a team from Heinrich Heine University in Germany has studied this issue in detail.

Scientists isolated stem cells from the urine of ten men and women of different ages. Doctors found several chemical markers on them, confirming that these are stem cells. Experts recognized among them the progenitor cells of three types of integumentary tissue characteristic of the kidneys.

These cells can be used to treat diseases of this important organ. In addition, they can be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells suitable for the "repair" of a variety of tissues. In general, almost any cells can be "rewired" like this, but with stem cells the process is especially effective.

In addition, these cells will serve as an excellent material for disease research and drug testing.

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