Investigating the effect of conditioned medium of mesenchymal ‎stem cells isolated from the kidneys of newborn mice on the ‎differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into ‎kidney ‎progenitor cells

Kidney diseases are an important medical problem worldwide. Since there are limited treatment options for damaged kidneys, stem cell therapy has become an alternative treatment. The aim of present study is to investigate effect of culture medium obtained from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs-CM) of newborn mice kidneys in percentages of 10, 30 and 50 on differentiation of embryonic stem cells towards kidney epithelial cells. Mesenchymal stem cells were isolated from kidneys of newborn mice, passaged and propagated. Determination of the identity of cells was done using flow cytometry and checking the expression of surface markers CD105, CD29, CD90. In third passage of extracted cells, supernatant culture medium was collected, hESC were cultured and multiplied in the complete culture medium of cells and the differentiation of hES cells into progenitor cells was investigated. The expression of PAX2, ZO1 and CK18 genes was investigated using RT-PCR, expression of CD133, CD24 and CD44 surface markers was investigated using flow cytometry. Flow cytometry results confirmed the mesenchymal nature of the cells. The results of differentiation of hESCs showed that expression of PAX2, ZO1 and CK18 genes increased significantly (p<0.05) in the groups containing supernatant. The results of flow cytometry show an increase in expression of CD133 and CD24 markers in groups containing CM and the expression of CD44 marker in the group containing 50% CM, compared to control group. In general, results showed supernatant culture process of cells has a positive effect on inducing differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into kidney progenitor cells.