OSAKA -- A research team at Kyoto University and Astellas Pharma has treated acute kidney failure with some success by using induced pluripotent stem cells, The Nikkei learned Friday.
The group led by professor Kenji Nagafune at Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application created renal cells from human iPS cells and placed them into a mouse suffering from kidney failure. This kept the mouse's kidney function from deteriorating while another mouse that went untreated developed acute kidney failure.
The experiment using mice was the first case in which iPS cells helped improve symptoms of kidney failure.
The team will make a presentation Thursday at a Japan Society for Regenerative Medicine conference in Yokohama. After conducting additional tests on safety and effectiveness using other animals, the Kyoto University-Astellas Pharma group hopes to launch clinical trials as early as 2025.
Kidney failure eventually requires regular dialysis treatments, imposing financial burdens on patients. Japan has roughly 300,000 such patients.
Kyoto University researchers aim to target chronic kidney failure caused by diabetes and high blood pressure as well.
(Nikkei)
