Introduction: Renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is the major cause of acute kidney injury (AKI); it is associated with severe morbidity and mortality in both developing and developed countries.
Aim of Work: To compare between the therapeutic potential of human umbilical cord–mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) and their microvesicles (MVs) on I/R induced AKI in a rat model.
Materials and Methods: 42 adult male albino rats with an average body weight 180-200 grams are included in the study. The control group included twelve rats they were subjected to sham operation and divided into (subgroups Ia & Ib) six rats each. The remaining thirty rats were exposed to I/R injury via ligation of both renal pedicles for 40 minutes (ten rats are the experimental non- treated group, ten rats injected once with hUC-MSCs after reperfusion and the last ten rats injected once with MVs after reperfusion). Intravenous injection of Paul Karl Horan (PKH) 26 labelled hUC- MSCs and MVs was done for the treated groups only. The sacrification was done after 48 hours and 2 weeks. The kidney sections were stained with hematoxylin & eosin, PAS and immunohistochemical staining for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Blood samples, were taken to measure serum urea and Cr on Day 2 and Day 14 following I/R acute kidney injury.
Results: Both hUC- MSCs and their MVs exhibited protection against AKI manifested by the improvement of histological architecture, the reduction of serum urea and Cr and the increase in PCNA expression in renal tubules with no significant differences between both.
Conclusion: These results suggest the potential renoprotective capacity of both hUC-MSCs and their MVs.