MicroRNAs, extracellular vesicles and stem cells: physiology, pathophysiological role and therapeutic potential in renal diseases

Abstract

Regenerative medicine, defines a new concept related to strategies to restore damaged tissue or accelerate tissue repair after injury. The tissue reconstruction and repair, however, constitute a major challenge of the current biomedical research since the cellular mechanisms underlying tissue reconstruction and repair are still poorly understood and largely unknown. Multipotent stem cells, in spite of the regenerative potential, exert their effects through paracrine activity and their plasticity has not yet been proven in vivo. In this context, microRNAs originated from stem cells emerge as potential candidates involved in the regenerative processes, mainly due to their ability to modulate the activity of a number of genes including those responsible for tissue repair 1. MicroRNAs are found in body fluids including blood and urina 2. Which circulate widely within the extracellular vesicles (exosomes and microvesicles) 3. The biological function of microRNAs goes, however, beyond the regenerative processes being also related to many physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms such as cell-cell communication, interaction between microenvironments and communication between tissues and organ systems. Besides microRNAs, extracellular vesicles derived or not from stem cells carry many information that are transmitted to other cells 4. And therefore dysregulated or aberrant expression of miRNAs has significant role in the pathophysiology of several diseases including renal diseases. Thus, the main objective of this project is to evaluate potential roles of microRNAs and extracellular vesicles derived or not from stem cells in the physiology, pathophysiology and in the regenerative mechanisms of the kidney. (AU)