A bioreactor device has been developed by researchers that, in order to simulate a number of the kidney’s most important activities, employs human kidney cells that have been cultivated in the laboratory. It was actually given to pigs for a week of testing, during which time there were no discernible adverse effects or problems found.
The bioartificial kidney will make treatment for kidney disease more effective and also much more tolerable and comfortable. We are focused on safely replicating the key functions of a kidney, explained Shuvo Roy, a bioengineer from UCSF.
At the moment, the only therapies for kidney failure are dialysis, which requires the patient to be hooked up to a machine for an extended period of time, or a kidney from another person, which is extremely rare. Now, we put all of our faith in kidney replacements made of artificial tissue!
The gadget is built with cultivated human proximal tubule cells; these cells are important for maintaining salt and water concentrations throughout the body and were employed as a test case in this investigation. The device connects directly to blood arteries and veins. In human patients, these cells already showed promise as a potential treatment for renal failure.
However, here’s the catch: scientists are also hard at work investigating alternative possibilities, such as whether or not it is possible to transplant organs from animals into human patients. No matter what strategy is taken, the overarching objective is to achieve the same thing: to prolong the lives of individuals who are suffering from renal failure.
In case you were unaware, the following is how the numbers break down:
- More than half a million people in the United States alone have a need for dialysis therapy on many occasions each week. That’s genuinely tragic.
- Only approximately 25,000 kidney transplants are performed each year. Those that are performed typically come with strenuous pharmacological treatments to prevent the body from rejecting the new kidney that has been transplanted.
The findings of the study were presented in a paper that was published in Nature Communications.
