“…Although most of the topically applied MSCs were observed to be remained on the surface of the recipient kidney in our study, the potential biological roles of these MSC should not be overlooked. It was postulated these MSCs might execute their biologic roles via paracrine and/or endocrine pathways, including mitogenic, antiapopotic, anti-inflammatory and angiogenic effects to support the regeneration of local kidney cells [8,9,26,41,42]. In fact, from our study, we had demonstrated downregulation of the expressions of caspase-3 (indicator of apoptosis) and endothelin-1 (indicator of endothelial damage), and upregulation of the expression of NQO-1 (anti-oxidative marker) in kidneys treated with topical MSCs.…”