Cell therapy in renal and cardiovascular disease

Abstract

Although there have been important advances in the field of molecular biology, the mechanisms responsible for nephrogenesis and the factors that modulate the process of development, proliferation, growth, and maturation during fetal and adult life have not been thoroughly explained. Animals, including mammals, share the intrinsic ability to regenerate tissues and organs as an important biological defense mechanism. In the case of the kidney, after tissue damage secondary to injury, anatomical and functional recovery of integrity is achieved, accompanied by the activation of a complex, poorly understood process, leading to the replacement of damaged tubular cells by functional ones that reorganize tubular architecture. This regeneration and repair process is produced by somatic, exogenous, adult stem cells, and probably by intrinsic renal stem cells, that are responsible for maintaining renal homeostasis