Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells pretreated with erythropoietin accelerate the repair of acute kidney injury

• Published in: Cell & bioscience Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 1 - 130
• Main Authors: Zhou, Song, Qiao, Yu-ming, Liu, Yong-guang, Liu, Ding, Hu, Jian-min, Liao, Jun, Li, Min, Guo, Ying, Fan, Li-pei, Li, Liu-Yang, Zhao, Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 16.11.2020; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Acute kidney injury; Analysis; Apoptosis; Bcl-2 protein; Bone marrow; Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells; Cell death; Creatinine; Erythropoietin; Health aspects; Heart attacks; IL-1β; Inflammation; Injuries; Interleukin 10; Intravenous administration; Ischemia; Kidney diseases; Kidneys; Lung entrapment; Lungs; Mesenchymal stem cells; p53 Protein; Proteins; Public health; Renal function; Reperfusion; siRNA; SIRT1; SIRT1 protein; Stem cell research; Stem cell transplantation; Stem cells; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Tumor proteins; Urea
• ISSN: 2045-3701; 2045-3701
• DOI: 10.1186/s13578-020-00492-2

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a promising treatment option for acute kidney injury (AKI). The main drawbacks of MSCs therapy, including the lack of specific homing after systemic infusion and early cell death in the inflammatory microenvironment, directly affect the therapeutic efficacy of MSCs. Erythropoietin (EPO)-preconditioning of MSCs promotes their therapeutic effect, however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. In this study, we sought to investigate the efficacy and mechanism of EPO in bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) for AKI treatment. We found that incubation of BMSCs with ischemia/reperfusion(I/R)-induced AKI kidney homogenate supernatant (KHS) caused apoptosis in BMSCs, which was decreased by EPO pretreatment, indicating that EPO protected the cells from apoptosis. Further, we showed that EPO up-regulated silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) and Bcl-2 expression and down-regulated p53 expression. This effect was partially reversed by SIRT1 siRNA intervention. The anti-apoptotic effect of EPO in pretreated BMSCs may be mediated through the SIRT1 pathway. In a rat AKI model, 24 h after intravenous infusion, GFP-BMSCs were predominantly located in the lungs. However, EPO pretreatment reduced the lung entrapment of BMSCs and increased their distribution in the target organs. AKI rats infused with EPO-BMSCs had significantly lower levels of serum IL-1[beta] and TNF-[alpha], and a significantly higher level of IL-10 as compared to rats infused with untreated BMSCs. The administration of EPO-BMSCs after reperfusion reduced serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and pathological scores in I/R-AKI rats more effectively than BMSCs treatment did. Our data suggest that EPO pretreatment enhances the efficacy of BMSCs to improve the renal function and pathological presentation of I/R-AKI rats.