In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a rat acute renal failure (ARF) model and explored the possible in vivo and in vitro mechanisms of action. Rat and human MSCs were isolated from bone marrow. After being co-cultured with injured kidney tissues in trans-well dishes in vitro, the rat MSCs became rounded renal tubular epithelial-like cells, and highly expressed renal markers such as cytokeratin 18 (CK18) and aquaporin-1 (AQP1). Human MSCs were infused into rats with ARF, and techniques of microscopy, histology, PCR, RT-PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization were used to characterize the MSCs after transplantation. We found that there were more exogenous human MSCs localized to injured kidney tissues. The kidney recovery rate in the transplanted MSC group was higher than in the control group. Genes associated with human renal tubular epithelial cells such as AQP1 and parathyroid hormone receptor 1 were detected. These findings suggest that the injured kidney tissue induced rat and human MSCs to differentiate into renal tubular epithelial-like cells in vitro and in vivo, and exogenous human MSCs can home specifically to injured regions and efficiently cure rat ARF. These results demonstrate that cell therapy has potential as a novel intervention in ARF.

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