Efficacy and Safety of Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells according to Injection Route and Dose in a Chronic Kidney Disease Rat Model

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We compared the efficacy and safety of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSC), delivered at different doses and via different injection routes in an animal model of chronic kidney disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of ninety 12-week-old rats underwent 5/6 nephrectomy and randomized among nine groups: sham, renal artery control (RA-C), tail vein control (TV-C), renal artery low dose (RA-LD) (0.5×10(6) cells), renal artery moderate dose (RA-MD) (1.0×10(6) cells), renal artery high dose (RA-HD) (2.0×10(6) cells), tail vein low dose (TV-LD) (0.5×10(6) cells), tail vein moderate dose (TV-MD) (1.0×10(6) cells), and tail vein high dose (TV-HD) (2.0×10(6) cells). Renal function and mortality of rats were evaluated after hBMSC injection. Serum blood urea nitrogen was significantly lower in the TV-HD group at 2 weeks (p<0.01), 16 weeks (p<0.05), and 24 weeks (p<0.01) than in the TV-C group, as determined by one-way ANOVA. Serum creatinine was significantly lower in the TV-HD group at 24 weeks (p<0.05). At 8 weeks, creatinine clearance was significantly higher in the TV-MD and TV-HD groups (p<0.01, p<0.05) than in the TV-C group. In the safety evaluation, we observed no significant difference among the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm the efficacy and safety of high dose (2×10(6) cells) injection of hBMSC via the tail vein.