Patient-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy in Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Phase I Study

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the most common cause of kidney failure in the U.S. and has no adequate cure. Mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) transplantation is an exciting new treatment, with a potential to slow the progression of kidney failure. Our goal is to assess the safety, tolerability, feasibility and early efficacy signals that relate to response to intra-arterial kidney delivery of autologous adipose tissue-derived MSCs in patients with DKD. The proposed studies in Minnesotans will lay the foundation for development of a therapy that may dramatically affect millions of patients across the U.S. by distinctly altering the trajectory of DKD.

Year 1 Progress Report:

We are indebted to the state of Minnesota for support of our quest to find effective treatments to halt diabetic kidney disease, the number one cause of kidney failure in the United States. Each year, around 120,000 Americans develop end-stage kidney failure requiring expensive life-sustaining dialysis treatments or kidney transplantation. Through the Regenerative Medicine Minnesota Award, we successfully navigated regulatory pathways allowing clinical trial conduct, initiated study enrollment of patients with diabetic kidney disease, and began testing the safety and potential benefits of this novel, regenerative therapy. Thanks to the state of Minnesota, these early studies will help strengthen our efforts to bring regenerative therapies to patients affected by diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease.