Kidney Stem Cell Responses in Acute Kidney Injury Repair
Dong Chen, Yuning Zhang, and Gilbert W. Moeckel
Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
ABSTRACT
The medulla is a proposed stem cell niche in the kidney. In the past, isolation of kidney stem cells has been problematic due to insufficient methods, which have failed to isolate a homogenous stem cell population. This study focuses on isolating and characterizing an endogenous kidney stem cell population from primary mouse medullary interstitial cells and assessing their role in repairing injury. We successfully determined the optimal selective culture conditions for the rapid and efficient isolation of stem cells from the kidney and show the expansion and characterization of a homogenous kidney stem cell population through immunofluorescent staining for seven stem cell markers. We further assessed kidney-repairing capabilities using cell proliferation assays, MTT cell viability assays and wound healing assays. Our results show that our selectively grown stem cells express six known stem cell markers. Results of our wound-healing assay support our hypothesis that medullary stem cells have injury-healing capabilities. This study provides a novel method for the isolation of endogenous kidney stem cells that have injury-repairing capabilities. Our studies reaffirm that the kidney medulla is a stem cell niche.
©2012 Yale Department of Pathology. All rights reserved.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited. You may not, except with express written permission of the author or the Department of Pathology, distribute or commercially exploit the content, nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system, including use for educational purposes.