Disclosed is the use of isolated adult kidney stem cells in the manufacture of a medicament for repairing and/or regenerating damaged kidney tissue in a patient in need thereof, wherein the adult kidney stem cells are isolated from a kidney tissue specimen and are lineage negative and c-kit positive, and wherein the kidney stem cells are capable of generating one or more cell types of the adult kidney. Also disclosed is a method of isolating resident adult stem cells comprising: - culturing a tissue specimen from an adult kidney in culture, thereby forming a tissue explant； - selecting cells from the cultured explant that are c-kit positive and lineage negative, and isolating said c-kit positive and lineage negative cells, wherein said isolated cells are resident adult kidney stem cells.
