Liu L, Behera TR, Wang QJ, Shen QQ. Advances in mesenchymal stem cell therapy for lupus nephritis. World J Stem Cells 2025; 17(8): 104930 [DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i8.104930]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Quan-Quan Shen, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Nephrology, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital Bijie Hospital, No. 112 Guanghui Road, Bijie 551700, Guizhou Province, China; Department of Nephrology, Urology & Nephrology Center, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital (People’s Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College), Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang Province, China. spring198457@sina.com
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Stem Cells. Aug 26, 2025; 17(8): 104930 Published online Aug 26, 2025. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i8.104930
Advances in mesenchymal stem cell therapy for lupus nephritis
Lin Liu, Tapas Ranjan Behera, Qiao-Jun Wang, Quan-Quan Shen
Lin Liu, Qiao-Jun Wang, Quan-Quan Shen, Department of Nephrology, Urology & Nephrology Center, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital (People’s Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College), Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang Province, China
Lin Liu, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China
Tapas Ranjan Behera, Department of Cancer Biology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States
Quan-Quan Shen, Department of Nephrology, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital Bijie Hospital, Bijie 551700, Guizhou Province, China
Author contributions: Liu L drafted the manuscript; Behera TR and Wang QJ performed the literature search; Behera TR and Shen QQ revised the manuscript; Shen QQ designed the research; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, No. LY23H050005; and Zhejiang Medical Technology Project, No. 2020KY439, No. 2022RC009, No. 2024KY645, and No. 2024KY697.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Quan-Quan Shen, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Nephrology, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital Bijie Hospital, No. 112 Guanghui Road, Bijie 551700, Guizhou Province, China; Department of Nephrology, Urology & Nephrology Center, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital (People’s Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College), Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang Province, China. spring198457@sina.com
Received: January 7, 2025 Revised: April 5, 2025 Accepted: July 1, 2025 Published online: August 26, 2025 Processing time: 226 Days and 21.2 Hours
Abstract
Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most common and serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus, which can lead to end-stage renal disease, and is an important cause of death in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Treatment options include glucocorticoids, immunosuppressive agents and the addition of biologics. Recently, the therapeutic role of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in LN has received extensive attention worldwide. MSCs can suppress autoimmunity, alleviate proteinuria and restore renal function by modulating the functions of various immune cells and reducing the secretion of inflammatory cytokines. Several clinical trials have investigated MSC treatment in LN with promising but sometimes inconsistent outcomes. This review summarizes the sources of MSCs and mechanisms in immunoregulation. Furthermore, it examines clinical trials evaluating the efficacy, safety, and limitations of MSC therapy in LN. By highlighting advances and ongoing challenges, this review underscores the potential of MSCs for LN treatment. More large-scale randomized controlled trials are needed to support the effectiveness of this therapy and pave the way for personalized and combinatorial therapeutic approaches.
Core Tip: Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most common and serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy has received extensive attention in LN. This article summarizes the sources of MSCs, the mechanisms of MSC therapy in LN treatment and the results of clinical trials. MSC therapy for LN shows great potential but still requires the support of large-scale clinical trials.
