Under pressure: A bioengineered kidney takes advantage of silicon membranes that allow very low-pressure filtration. The membrane in this image is layered with kidney cells. The cells’ nuclei are shown in blue, their microtubules in red, and a junction protein called ZO-1 in green.
William Fissell, The Cleveland Clinic.
A prototype uses kidney cells to help it perform vital functions.
Nearly 400,000 people in the United States--and as many as two million worldwide--rely on dialysis machines to filter toxins from their blood because of chronic kidney failure.
Patients must be tethered to machines at least three times a week for three to five hours at a stretch. Even then, a dialysis machine is only about 13 percent as effective as a functional kidney, and the five-year survival rate of patients on dialysis is just 33 to 35 percent. To restore health, patients need a kidney transplant, and there just aren't enough donor organs to go around. In August, there were 85,000 patients on the U.S. waiting list for a kidney in the U.S., while only 17,000 kidney transplants took place last year.
A collaborative, multidisciplinary group of labs is working to create the first implantable artificial kidney. The prototype, revealed last week, is compact, no larger than a soup can. It not only filters toxins out of the bloodstream but also uses human kidney cells to perform other vital functions, such as regulating blood pressure and producing vitamin D.
"Dialysis is not only time-consuming, but it's also debilitating. Many patients don't feel good, because it's not doing all the functions of a normal, healthy kidney," says bioengineer Shuvo Roy, whose lab at the University of California, San Francisco produced the new device and is already testing it in animals. "The kidney doesn't just filter toxins. It also has metabolic functions and hormonal functions, and dialysis doesn't capture these abilities."
Making an artificial kidney small enough to fit inside the body is, however, a big challenge. A healthy kidney filters 90 liters of water each day. Current dialysis machines are the size of a small refrigerator, and require substantial pressure to pump enough water through the machine's porous membranes to allow contaminants to be filtered out of the blood.
The new implant is a fusion of multiple lines of research, and takes advantage of two recent advances in the field. University of Michigan nephrologist David Humes has shown that human kidney cells could be used in a room-sized filtration machine to greatly improve the health of patients whose kidneys have stopped functioning. Meanwhile, Roy and William Fissell, a nephrologist at the Cleveland Clinic, have produced a nano-pore silicon membrane that--with its dense and precise pore-structure--could help miniaturize dialysis machines.
The prototype is a two-part system: half consists of a toxin-removing filter, in which thousands of silicon membranes are stacked together. Their nano-pores are so dense, and so precisely shaped, that they can filter very precisely using only the force of the body's own blood pressure. Blood flows in through this filter, where the toxins, sugars, water, and salts are removed as a filtered solution.
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building a kidney from scratch is pretty awesome.
i wrote this cool blog about alligator blood having medicinal purposes that protect kidneys & livers.
check it out
http://www.theantibioticsblog.com/alligator-blood-antibiotics-to-take-a-bite-out-of-mrsa
This is very exciting. I have a friend who is on a waitinglist for the past 13years. This is the best news ever and we spoke about it. She is definitely for it and would love to participate in such a breakthrough. She is still young and feels that she can still give a lot to this world and it's people. Well done, keep us posted and if you need someone to participate in the people testing research... we are on your list. Keep up the good work. Thx
Just to make sure this is clear, the implant won't be ready for testing in people for at least five years... In the meantime, there are portable dialysis devices that are closer to the testing stage. You can find open trials that are actively recruiting patients by visiting clinicaltrials.gov.
i have been on dialysis for 4 and a half yrs and would give anything to try anything
Whereas, the technological project certainly seems like it could indeed be beneficial to many hemodialysis patients, the survival rates that the article cites are at best highly questionable or at worst out right wrong. The survival rate of a person receiving conventional dialysis is between three to five DECADES, based on patient survival. I am not seeking to minimize the pain, discomfort and extreme inconvenience that the experience impacts on the patient and their family, but ... it all depends on the pre-morbid coping skills and personality of the patient, as well as, the character of their supportive environment. A person who has developed ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) which has resulted in the necessity of dialysis in order to live, that comes as the result of malignant diabetes is the extreme exception and there the survival statistics are closer to what the article's author reports. There the complication of diabetes could well make the artificial appliance under discussion not much more viable than the current available methods. Clearly, no one in their right mind should want to volunteer to have to be dailysized thrice weekly, but given the fact that I have as a renal social worker, I have personally worked with hundreds of individuals, who traveled nationally and internationally, worked full and part time jobs,raised families and even fathered and mothered, biological children, notwithstanding the reality that they spent upwards of a day per week (in aggrogate) as dialysis recipients, there are certainly far worse fates in the world. Granted it is very uncomfortable and at times even painful as I have witnessed and been told, and there are many dietary and fluid intake restrictions, in addition to meciation, vitamen and suppliment regimenes, which must be adhered to religiously for optimum health. But people can and in many cases do adapt and adjust. The mortality rate was about 8% per year, a very high number indeed, and many patients, unfortunately to fall prey to the co-morbid depression that often occurs and as a consequence too many do lose the will to be their best, but that isn't a given and nor need it be taken to be necessarily a given. The devise(s) in question in my estimation should be funded to improve the quality of life. But people are not dropping like flies as the author of the article suggests.
People are dropping like flies in the countries with less developed medical care like Ukraine, Russia, etc. My Mother has been on dialysis for 5 years and she saw a LOT of people go very-very fast... and it's a miracle she is still here. Unfortunately it looks like she will be very lucky if she survives another year…
Please keep us updated of the progress of implantable kidney.i am sure all are very much hopefull of this achievement.My son has undergone through kidney transplant,but i wish a day will come when patients wont require immunosupressive medicines and will live a healthy life.I am very excited about it.please keep us updated.
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22 Comments
Building an Implantable Artificial Kidney
Such an ambitious project, sends shivers down my spine.
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James38
15 Comments
Re: Building an Implantable Artificial Kidney
It makes my liver quiver.
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