Background: Molecular hydrogen has not yet been widely used and accepted in conventional medicine. However, recent findings indicate that hydrogen has a variety of pharmacological effects which have a positive impact on various diseases. Among them are kidney diseases. In the present study, cell biological test methods were used to investigate whether hydrogen-enriched water possesses beneficial effects at the cellular level in direct comparison to the same tap water without treatment.

Experimental: Hydrogen-enriched water was produced by two different devices from misterwater GmbH, Germany, from initial local tap water in accordance with the operating instructions. Investigations of the resulting hydrogen-enriched water were carried out immediately after hydrogen generation. The same tap water without treatment with the hydrogen-producing devices was taken as control. For the experiments, a well established kidney epithelial cell line (MDCK; Madin-Darby Canine Kidney Cells) was used. At least three independent experiments for each test parameter were conducted. Statistical analysis of the data was done using the two-tailed Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney rank-sum test.

Results: The use of the freshly prepared hydrogen-enriched water resulted in a statistically significant stimulation of the cell metabolism of kidney epithelial cells (p ≤ 0.01) compared to the initial tap water. The most significant stimulation of 21.4 ± 7.4% was achieved at a volume fraction of 20 vol% (mean value ± standard deviation). Even higher concentrations of hydrogen-enriched water showed a significant increase by about 16%. In comparison to the initial tap water, cell regeneration was stimulated by the hydrogen-enriched water by 31.5 ± 4.7% (20 vol%) and 28.9 ± 4.5% (40 vol%). This improvement in cell regeneration was statistically significant in all experiments (p ≤ 0.01). In the experiments with exogenously induced oxidative stress by reactive oxygen species, the difference in cell viability was improved for hydrogen-enriched water vs. initial tap water at all hydrogen peroxide concentrations tested and was significant for 2 and 5 mM hydrogen peroxide (p ≤ 0.01). This protective effect of hydrogen-enriched water was also clearly visible morphologically.

Conclusions: The regular drinking of freshly prepared hydrogen-enriched water produced by the devices of mister water GmbH are able for improving cell metabolism of kidney cells, stimulating the regeneration process in the case of cell damage and giving more cell protection in the case of oxidative stress. Therefore, hydrogen-enriched water might also possess a beneficial impact on human well-being and the attitude to life.