A new artificial kidney consists of living kidney cells on a plastic scaffold restored the main functions of the organ during the test in dogs. If the device, described in the May issue of Nature Biotechnology , can replace kidneys in humans, it could save the lives of thousands of patients who suffer from sudden kidney failure each year.
More than half of those whose kidneys fail during or after major surgery die, usually within 2 weeks. Indeed, the standard treatment for kidney failure, pumping blood through a dialysis machine, do filter metabolic waste from the blood, says nephrologist David Humes of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. A kidney, in comparison, pumps hormones such as activated vitamin D can increase the capabilities against the body of the infection subsides and the salts and nutrients from the liquid become urine. To create a better replacement kidney, Humes and his colleagues enlisted the real experts -. Kidney cells themselves
First, the team extracted primitive kidney cells called renal tubular cells from adult pigs and inject them into plastic tubes. These tubes form a hemofiltration cartridge, a blood filtering device already used by a handful of patients with kidney failure. The cells can collect on the tubes with small holes to allow the dissolved molecules to slip through. The cells then come together to form a fabric sheet, as they do in a normal kidney. When the blood of dogs that had just had their kidneys removed was passed through the device, it filters the blood more effectively than standard dialysis machine. In addition, devices with better maintained cells control blood pH and actively secreted hormones to fight against infection and glutathione activated vitamin D in the blood of animals compared to devices without cells. The group is seeking regulatory approval to begin clinical trials for patients with acute renal failure later this year, said Humes. And a variant of the device for chronic renal failure is scheduled for tests on animals.
The new system "should provide much normal kidney function as possible with conventional dialysis," says biomedical engineer Barry Solomon Circe Biomedical Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, which produced similar devices fill for failing livers. the device also shows the promise of bioartificial organs plastic compounds and living tissue, said biomedical engineer Clark Colton Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "I think it is a big step forward for the field. "
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