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World J Stem Cells. Mar 26, 2015; 7(2): 490-494
Published online Mar 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i2.490
Adult stem-like cells in kidney
Keiichi Hishikawa, Osamu Takase, Masahiro Yoshikawa, Taro Tsujimura, Masaomi Nangaku, Tsuyoshi Takato
Keiichi Hishikawa, Osamu Takase, Masahiro Yoshikawa, Taro Tsujimura, Masaomi Nangaku, Tsuyoshi Takato, Department of Advanced Nephrology and Regenerative Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan
Tsuyoshi Takato, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: All authors certify that there is no conflict of interest (including but not limited to commercial, personal, political, intellectual, or religious) regarding the material discussed in the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Keiichi Hishikawa, MD, PhD, Department of Advanced Nephrology and Regenerative Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan. hishikawa-tky@umin.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-3-3155411
Received: July 29, 2014
Peer-review started: July 30, 2014
First decision: October 16, 2014
Revised: November 20, 2014
Accepted: December 3, 2014
Article in press: December 10, 2014
Published online: March 26, 2015
Processing time: 233 Days and 22.1 Hours
Abstract

Human pluripotent cells are promising for treatment for kidney diseases, but the protocols for derivation of kidney cell types are still controversial. Kidney tissue regeneration is well confirmed in several lower vertebrates such as fish, and the repair of nephrons after tubular damages is commonly observed after renal injury. Even in adult mammal kidney, renal progenitor cell or system is reportedly presents suggesting that adult stem-like cells in kidney can be practical clinical targets for kidney diseases. However, it is still unclear if kidney stem cells or stem-like cells exist or not. In general, stemness is defined by several factors such as self-renewal capacity, multi-lineage potency and characteristic gene expression profiles. The definite use of stemness may be obstacle to understand kidney regeneration, and here we describe the recent broad findings of kidney regeneration and the cells that contribute regeneration.

Keywords: Stem cell; Label-retaining cells; rKS56; SP cells; CD24; CD133; Sca-1; Induced pluripotent stem; ES cell

Core tip: Controversies still persist whether kidney stem cells exist or not, but renal progenitor cell or system is reportedly presents suggesting that adult stem-like cells in kidney can be practical clinical targets for kidney diseases. In this mini-review, we describe the recent broad findings of kidney regeneration and the cells that contribute regeneration.