Kidney disease affects millions of people worldwide and is a financial burden on the healthcare system. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), which is involved in renal development and the function of ion-transport proteins, aquaporin-2 and podocytes, is likely to serve an important role in renal processes. PP2A is associated with the pathogenesis of a variety of different kidney diseases including podocyte injury, inflammation, tumors and chronic kidney disease. The current review aimed to discuss the structure and function of PP2A subunits in the context of kidney diseases. How dysregulation of PP2A in the kidneys causes podocyte death and the inactivation of PP2A in renal carcinoma tissues is discussed. Inhibition of PP2A activity prevents epithelial-mesenchymal transition and attenuates renal fibrosis, creating a favorable inflammatory microenvironment and promoting the initiation and progression of tumor pathogenesis. The current review also indicates that PP2A serves an important role in protection against renal inflammation. Understanding the detailed mechanisms of PP2A provides information that can be utilized in the design and application of novel therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of renal diseases.
Kidney disease (KD) is a life-threatening disease characterized by high morbidity and mortality in clinical settings, which can be caused by many reasons, and the incidence increases with age. However, supportive therapy and kidney transplantation still have limitations in alleviating KD progression. Recently, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown great potential in repairing injury through their multidirectional differentiation and self-renewal ability. Of note, MSCs serve as a safe and effective therapeutic strategy for treating KD in preclinical and clinical trials. Functionally, MSCs ameliorate KD progression by regulating the immune response, renal tubular cell apoptosis, tubular epithelial–mesenchymal transition, oxidative stress, angiogenesis, and so on. In addition, MSCs exhibit remarkable efficacy in both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) through paracrine mechanisms. In this review, we outline the biological characteristics of MSCs, discuss the efficacy and mechanisms of MSCs-based therapy for KD, summarize the completed and ongoing clinical trials, as well as analyze limitations and new strategies, aiming to provide new ideas and approaches for the preclinical experiments and clinical trials of MSCs transplantation for KD.
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