Utilization of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Kidney Transplantation: From Bench to Bedside

There has been ample of preclinical and animal studies which showed efficacy and safety of using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) after transplantation for tissue repair, immunosuppression or tolerance induction. However, there has been a significant progress recently using MSCs in small clinical trials after transplantation. Recent results using MSCs after transplantation seem to be feasible and safe. However, there are some limitations to show the effectiveness of these cells including source, dose, timing and route of infusions. Currently, live donor kidney transplantation has been especially considered and development of recent regimes including immunosuppression drugs and MSCs administration to kidney and other organs and deceased donor transplantation would be crucial. Therefore, in this review we focused on immunomodulatory effects of MSCs that have been extensively studied to suppress various inflammatory responses in kidney transplantation