Mesenchymal/stromal cell therapy in kidney diseases: an update

Apr 2, 2026Current opinion in nephrology and hypertension

Stem cell therapy for kidney diseases: an update

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Abstract

Mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) therapies may improve kidney function in various conditions, particularly when timing and local environment are optimized.

The effectiveness of MSC therapies in acute kidney injury is limited to specific timing and is influenced by the local pathological setting.
In diabetic kidney disease, MSCs enhance kidney function and reduce damage through several mechanisms, independent of blood sugar levels.
In lupus nephritis, the properties of MSCs and their derived extracellular vesicles can be enhanced by adjusting their immune context.
Chronic kidney conditions linked to hypertension show reduced MSC efficacy unless underlying vascular issues are addressed.
Cell-free approaches utilizing extracellular vesicles may provide safer and more scalable alternatives to direct MSC therapies.

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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review synthesizes advanced preclinical and clinical studies published over the past 18 months evaluating mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and MSC-derived products in kidney diseases. We focused on the translational relevance of MSC-based therapies against ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) and toxic acute kidney injury (AKI), as well as chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and lupus nephritis (LN).

RECENT FINDINGS: The renoprotective effects of MSC-based therapies are highly dependent on the timing of administration and the local pathological microenvironment. In IRI and AKI, therapeutic efficacy is confined to specific exposure windows and is driven by early modulation of mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation and cell death. In DKD, MSCs from multiple sources consistently improve albuminuria, renal function and structural damage through anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic, autophagy-restoring and ferroptosis-inhibiting mechanisms. This nephroprotection appears to be largely independent of the glycaemic control. In LN, immune-contextual conditioning critically shapes the phenotypes of MSCs and MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs), with optimized or engineered products outperforming the naïve approaches. In contrast, hypertension-related kidney disease illustrates how chronic ischemia and vascular remodelling limit MSC efficacy unless the underlying hemodynamic stress is corrected.

SUMMARY: Across diverse settings of acute and chronic kidney injury, MSC-based therapies act primarily as modulators of early pathogenic cascades rather than curative interventions for advanced damage. Their efficacy critically depends on timing, disease context and micro-environmental conditioning. Increasingly, cell-free strategies based on EVs offer scalable and potentially safer alternatives, supporting the translational development of context-adapted and combinatorial strategies.

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Mesenchymal/stromal cell therapy in kidney diseases: an update

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