A study by IDIBELL, Bellvitge Hospital, Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute and Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence has discovered a key mechanism related to the recovery of kidney function after a transplant. Specifically, the study has described a cause why kidney progenitor cells are sometimes unable to repair damaged tissues during a transplant.
The study, published in the American Journal of Transplantation, the highest-impact journal on transplantation, provides important knowledge to help find new treatments that prevent the need for dialysis after a transplant, which is known as delayed kidney graft function. It is a common complication, which has no treatment and affects around one in 3 transplants. In addition, it has negative consequences in terms of more days of hospitalization, increased risk of acute rejection and reduced duration of the transplanted kidney.
Whenever an organ such as a kidney is transplanted, damage called ischemia and reperfusion injury occurs to some extent. This damage derives, among other factors, from the characteristics of the donor and the time that the kidney is preserved cold, and is usually repaired from the activity of the so-called renal progenitor cells, which have the property of being able to divide and become other types of cells. This pioneering study has found that ischemia and reperfusion injury itself, when severe enough, causes epigenetic changes in renal progenitor cells that negatively affect their restorative action. The study has also identified a gene called LHX1 as a main protagonist of this affectation.
To reach these conclusions, the study has carried out the epigenetic analysis of the entire genome of progenitor cells isolated from the urine and kidneys of kidney donors and transplant recipients. The study also included work with mice and functional studies.
The work has been led by Dr. Josep M. Cruzado, head of the Nephrology Service of the Bellvitge University Hospital and of the Nephrology and Kidney Transplant Research Group of IDIBELL, and Dr. María Berdasco, leader of the Epigenetic Therapies Research Group of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute.
According to Dr. Cruzado, “this work is part of a line of research that does not aim to directly prevent tissue damage, but to protect and enhance the action of the cells responsible for repairing this damage”. Along the same lines, Dr. Berdasco stresses that the study “opens up new perspectives so that we can develop epigenetic therapies that can very effectively prevent kidney failure after transplantation.”
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research centre created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of Hospitalet de Llobregat.
IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish centres accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Centre of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).