We established an exogenous biological renal support model through the generation of parabiotic mice. At 72 hours after ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI), the aged mice that received exogenous biological renal support showed significantly higher levels of renal cell proliferation and dedifferentiation, lower levels of renal tubular injury, improved renal function, and a lower mortality than those that did not receive exogenous biological renal support. Using the Quantibody Mouse Cytokine Antibody Array, we found that aged IRI mice that received exogenous biological renal support had an up-regulation of multiple inflammatory related cytokines compared to the group that did not receive exogenous biological renal support. We suggest that the exogenous biological renal support might promote renal tubular epithelial cell proliferation and dedifferentiation and improve the prognosis of aged IRI mice. Exogenous biological renal support may play an important role in the amelioration of renal IRI by regulating the expression of multiple cytokines.
Keywords: aged; cytokines; exogenous biological renal support; parabiosis model; renal ischemia reperfusion injury.