Date: 4/9/2008
TUMSPR News: Researchers at Tehran University of Medical Sciences’ (TUMS) separated and identified kidney stem cells. A task fulfilled in two years.
Researchers at Tehran University of Medical Sciences’ (TUMS) separated and identified kidney stem cells. A task fulfilled in two years.
Here is the interview with Dr. Abbassi, the project’s executive:
“From two years ago by the participation of a group, composed of Dr. Ayati, the head of urology ward, Dr. Imami-Razavi and Dr. khosh-Zaban, who are members of the Iranian Tissue Bank, Mr. Zahedi, a medical student, Mr. Heidary, holding MSc. in molecular biology and me, a project to obtain stem cells from kidney tissue was launched in the form of a doctorate dissertation.
To jump-start the project, we used kidney tissues from people affected by kidney cancer, Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC), and had to undergo nephrectomy. The excised kidneys had intact cells too.
For ethical issues, we got informed consent forms from the patients. Then small sections of renal papillae were excised and studied for stem cells. Then the cells were cultured and injected to mice. Afterwards, it was seen that the cells had the ability to build kidney tubules, bone and other tissues, in other words they had the characteristics of pluripotent cells.
A question was raised and we had to know whether the stem cells originated from blood. Therefore, antigenic markers were used and we realized that the cells had antigens different from those of blood stem cells.
Another question that had to be answered was whether the stem cells were innately from the kidney and had the ability to produce kidney tissue. Further investigations were carried out and we identified the antigenic characteristics of mature people’s kidneys which differentiated them from fetal stem cells, with the ability to build some parts of the kidney tissue".
In response to the question that whether or not this discovery could end in making kidneys Dr. Abbassi said: “There is a huge gap to achieve that. In this stage we can only be hopeful of research accomplishment and we do not opt for treatment purposes. We hope that separation of these cells help us understand the basics of disease or help us understand treatment possibilities, prevention or harm reduction in the acute stage of kidney diseases. The kidney has a complex tissue and it may have been formed from the development of a few stem cells in different pathways. Therefore, at this stage we do not intend to make kidneys."
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