Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transfusion for the Treatment of Refractory Lupus Nephritis
Status:
NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Trial end date:
2029-10-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Lupus nephritis (LN) is the most common and serious complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which can lead to permanent kidney injury and uremia. At present, the combination of glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants is still the first line of clinical treatments. Only about 20%-30% of patients with LN can achieve a complete response. In addition, attainment of clinical remission does not necessarily reflect improvement in the kidney tissues, A substantial proportion of patients who show a clinical response to treatment still have histological findings in their kidney biopsy samples that are consistent with active kidney disease after clinical complete remission. Because of the complexity of refractory lupus nephritis, there is no uniform and effective treatment for them. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a class of pluripotent stem cells, that can secrete hundreds of cytokines to participate in immune regulation, anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrosis processes, etc., so they have been actively explored for the treatment of autoimmune diseases which Including systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis recently. Therefore, MSCs have been considered as a potential therapeutic regimen for the treatment of refractory LN. Several clinical trials have been performed, but the results have been inconsistent and the outcome indicators of treatment were not verified by pathological findings. Therefore, this trial wishes to investigate whether MSCs can improve renal recovery in patients with refractory lupus nephritis and to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment by renal biopsy.