Curative effect of different transplantation ways of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on renal ischemia reperfusion injury

Objective The aim of this study is to observe the curative effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on renal ischemia reperfusion injury via different transplantation ways. Method Healthy C57BL/6 male mice weighing 20 to 25 g were randomly divided into 6 groups, namely normal control group (group N), ischemia reperfusion injury group (group IRI), ischemia reperfusion + saline-injected group (group NS), ischemia reperfusion + femoral vein cell-transplanted group (group FV), ischemia reperfusion + renal artery cell-transplanted group (group RA), and ischemia reperfusion + orbital vein cell-transplanted group (group OV). The model of ischemia reperfusion injury was established by resecting the right kidney and blocking the left renal pedicle for 35 min. Cell-transplanted groups were correspondingly injected BMSCs via artery or vein respectively. Five mice were randomly selected from each group to collect blood and kidney tissues at the point of 12, 24 and 48 h after ischemia reperfusion injury except group N for the reason that they could be sacrificed directly. Then we evaluated the serum creatinine level (Scr) and histopathological changes by HE staining to observe the curative effect of BMSCs treating renal ischemia reperfusion injury via different transplantation ways. Result As compared with normal control group, serum creatinine levels increased dramatically after renal ischemia reperfusion injury (P 0.05), but at 48 h, Scr in the orbital vein cell-transplanted group recovered faster (P<0.05). HE staining showed some pathological changes such as swelling, degeneration, necrosis even desquamating in renal tubular epithelial cells in renal ischemia reperfusion injury groups, while there existed little renal glomerulus abnormal changes. In addition, as compared with non-transplantation groups, renal pathological changes in the BMSCs-transplanted groups were significantly mitigated, especially in intravenous injection groups. Conclusion Administration of BMSCs via artery or vein immediately after renal ischemia reperfusion injury could ameliorate renal injury and improve renal function. As compared with arterial transplantation, the transplantation of intravenous injection could be better and obtained little trauma. Besides, cell transplantation through orbital vein may have the better repairing ability than through femoral vein, which made it a promising technical means of improving renal ischemia reperfusion injury. Key words: Ischemia; Reperfusion injury; Kidney; Mesenchymal stem cell transplantation; Injections, intravenous; Renal artery