Posted on 01/04/2017 8:09:40 AM PST by PJ-Comix
Dutch scientists and engineers have taken a big step towards developing a bionic kidney that could one day potentially replace the need for dialysis or transplantation. They have tested a "living membrane" made with human cells that would be at the heart of a functional artificial kidney implant.
The Device Filtered Out Waste, The Same Way As A Real Kidney
The team presented the advancement at at ASN Kidney Week 2016 November 15-20 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL. They demonstrated this activity by attaching human renal proximal tubular epithelial cells on the surfaces of artificial hollow structures. These cultured cells indeed function as a living membrane and are able to actively remove the waste products.
"This study shows the successful development of a living membrane consisting of a reproducible ciPTEC monolayer on hollow fiber membranes, an important step towards the development of a bioartificial kidney device," said Professor Dimitrios Stamatialis from University of Twente in Netherlands.
(Excerpt) Read more at itechpost.com ...
If the bioartificial kidney is developed, it will be the BIGGEST medical news in years. My brother-in-law is now on dialysis. I told him about this development and he told me he would be willing to be one of the first recipients of the bioartificial kidney despite the risks. Hopefully 2017 will be the year that the bioartificial kidney becomes a reality.
This is very cool.
Coupled with the recent announcement of a breathalyzer test that can detect, among other things, kidney cancer, it sounds like good things are coming down the road. May be too late for some, but still good news.
key word here is “bioartificial.” They are using cells from patient’s own body.
The announcement usually means a few more years before it gets approved.
Parallel developments were already well on the way so 2017 could be the year. There are currently two separate bioartificial kidney projects in development-—at Univ. of San Francisco and at Vanderbilt.
My nephew is on dialysis and is not a candidate for a transplant due to his tendency to scar.
This scaring problem also means that within a few years he will not have any place for the dialysis ports left.
This technology probably won’t be approved by the FDA in time for my nephew thanks to the glacial pace at which the FDA works
I am hoping that President Trump will speed things up. This membrane technology can also be applied to other organ transplants so look forward in the future to lungs on a chip or liver on a chip.
Manufacturers and Distributors need to be properly protected from lawsuits before they can begin selling them. That requires lot of testing time and government approval. Signing a form that says “I will not sue” is no longer ironclad.
If we had proper tort reform, these things would be expedited.
Scientists have started to make huge inroads through cloning. The model that seems the most promising is not a primate such as a monkey, or chimp. Instead the animal that holds the most promise of all potential animal donors is of all things…the pig. Incredibly scientists have succeeded in removing those proteins from pig cells that are most responsible for rejection. In the simplest of explanations, these pig kidneys, on the cellular level are coming close to being indistinguishable from humans. They are so close in fact that they may not even need to be matched. You can essentially put the same kidney into…well anybody.
*****
Transplant surgeon Dr. Joseph Tector, and his laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is on the forefront of this scientific advancement. They are very close. So close in fact that I predict, for the coming year, that Dr. Tector will put the first pig kidney into a human being, possibly as early as the end of 2017, or the very beginning of 2018. I also predict this will work and change the way we think of organ transplantation forever.
Well, I had my own transplants (actually grafts) last year. A couple of pig skin grafts on a deep foot wound. Worked great especially since at one point my wound was so deep it looked like a gap removed by an ice cream scoop. Now healed so well you wouldn’t even know I had the wound unless I pointed out the small scar on my foot.
Impressive . . .so glad it worked out so well for you!
Agree that there is massive demand for this, and demand will only go up with an aging population prone to diabetes.
If it works, it is worth a Nobel Prize because it will literally save millions immediately, tens of millions over the next years.
From an article in 2016:
At UAB, Tector will head the xenotransplantation program, which focuses on transplanting animal organs, tissues and cells into human recipients. The program just won a five-year, $19.5 million grant from United Therapeutics Corp. with the goal of developing genetically modified kidney transplants from pig models to humans by 2021.
Hopefully 2017 will be the year that the bioartificial kidney becomes a reality.
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One day it will be happen, but these articles are filled with hype.
Good step, but I’ll get interested when they can attach blood vesicles to it to not only filter the blood, but feed the tissue as is done in the body.
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