A molecular pathway that works through the immune system to regenerate damaged kidney tissues have been discovered.

The breakthrough may lead to new therapies for repairing injury in a number of organs systems.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre and the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School gave out these findings after a collaborative research.

According to senior study co-authors, Richard Lang and Jeremy Duffield, the study may potentially open up ways to treat kidney injury - a growing problem in hospitals and clinics, for which

there is no treatment currently.

Lang is researcher in pediatric ophthalmology and developmental biology at Cincinnati Children's and Duffield is with Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The new molecular repair pathway involves white blood cells called macrophages - part of the immune system - that respond to tissue injury by producing a protein called Wnt7b.

During experiments in mice with induced kidney injury, scientists identified the macrophage-Wnt7b pathway.

Wnt7b is already known to be important to the formation of kidney tissues during embryonic organ development. In this study the scientists found the protein helped initiate tissue repair and

regeneration in injured kidneys, says a Cincinnati Children's centre release.

Lang further added," Our findings suggest that by migrating to the injured kidney and producing Wnt7b, macrophages are re-establishing an early molecular program for organ development that

also is beneficial to tissue repair."

"This study also indicates the pathway may be important to tissue regeneration and repair in other organs."

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)  has published these findings which are based on a number of experiments of kidney injury in mice. (With Input from Agencies)