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Healing Secrets of Placenta: A Ray of Hope for Diabetic Kidney Patients - Cord Blood

Cord Blood

and Stem Cell Banking

Healing Secrets of Placenta: A Ray of Hope for Diabetic Kidney Patients

Cell cross section

A recent study led by Jiao Wang, Honghong Liu, and Guanru Yue has shown some promising results on how placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells (PMSCs) – the name for a special type of cell from a placenta – can help treat diabetic kidney disease. Wondering how they did it? Well, the experiment involved injecting these PMSCs into rats that were given a form of diabetic kidney disease.

Here’s What They Found

After treating rats with PMSCs for about 8 weeks, scientists observed a significant improvement in their kidney function. Some of the key markers that showed recovery include lowered levels of creatinine, urea nitrogen, cystatin C in the blood, decreased urinary albumin-creatinine ratio, and the kidney index. What’s even better is that these injections helped fix some physical damage in kidneys caused by the disease, like tubular vacuolar degeneration, mesangial matrix expansion, and glomerular filtration barrier injury.

What’s the Secret Sauce?

So, how did these stem cells exactly do their magic? The key lies in how they affect the balance of certain types of immune cells in our bodies – T helper 17 cells (Th17) and regulatory T cells (Treg) to be specific. Basically, PMSCs tilt the scales to promote a healthier balance of these cells improving the body’s response to inflammation and reducing harmful effects of diabetic kidney disease.

Further Fascinating Findings

Next, the researchers wanted to understand how this all was happening. They observed that PMSCs managed to increase the presence of a molecule called programmed death 1 (PD-1) while simultaneously reducing the expression of the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), which helped in restoring the Th17/Treg balance and reducing the overall inflammation in the body.

Wrapping it Up: Good News for Future Treatments?

Lastly, the researchers concluded that these placenta-derived stem cells effectively healed and reduced the harmful impact of diabetic kidney disease in their rat models. This is seemingly thanks to their ability to modulate the Th17/Treg balance.

These exciting results give us a tantalizing clue into how we might be able to use these very special stem cells to treat people with diabetic kidney disease in the future.