Renal Capsule as a Stem Cell Niche

There has been known for a while that there are stem cells stored, so to speak, within the renal tubules and papillary area. Scientists in New York conducted a study to see if renal capsules harbor stem cells as well and whether these cells can be called upon ischemic injury. More specifically, if these cells can be recruited to the renal parenchyma.
It was demonstrated (in vitro and in vivo) that there are stem cells throughout the renal capsule and that they are, in fact, close to the blood vessels.Renal capsule derived cells exhibited self-removal, clonogeniciy and multipontency in differentiation conditions--all stem cell characteristics. In vivo, a directed migration of the marke cells (stem cells) was shown to the ischemic renal parenchyma. Decapsulating of the kidneys during ischemia resulted in a modest, but statistically significant deceleration of recovery of plasma reatine compared to ischemic kidneys with the intact renal capsule. Therefore, one can conclude that the renal capsular cells may contribute to the recovery from ischemia.

I picked this article because I didn't know that the kidneys has stem cells to begin with. So, it was even more interesting to me to find out that not only does the kidney have stem cells in several locations, but there are finding more. Moreover, these stem cells can be called upon injury. To me, this just validates the fact that the kidney is so important to the human body that it has several "emergency plans" to make sure to keep the kidney is in good conditions.

http://ajprenal.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/00406.2009v1