Protective Role of Poria Cocos Polysaccharide Induced Differentiation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Chronic Kidney Disease

Abstract

The progressive loss of renal function and accumulation of collagen leads to CKD. Human BM-MSCs are considered as an ideal therapeutic strategy for renal regeneration in the CKD. Polysaccharides extracted from Poria cocos, an edible medicinal mushroom, have been in use in the traditional Chinese herbal medicine as they exhibit antidiabetic, antioxidative, antitumor, and other pharmacological effects. Whether the polysaccharides of P. cocos could ameliorate the CKD via induction of BM-MSC differentiation remains to be explored. The data presented here show that the polysaccharides of P. cocos not only induced BM-MSC proliferation and differentiation, but also reduced the levels of proinflammatory cytokines and improved renal morphology.