More than two years ago , scientists at Vanderbilt Universitytold of their intentionto construct an artificial kidney that could be implanted into the bodies of those suffer renal failure . Now it seems like they could be get somewhere , with new advances in nanotechnology potentially putting such a lifesaving system of rules within our grasp .
It ’s obvious why medico do n’t want to depend on transplantation : there is a world-wide donor organ deficit , and after that there are issues of blood type matching and rejection . People with kidney disease can go on todialysis – a subprogram that scavenge the blood , usually performed by machine – but the prospects are n’t good . The survival rate after three years is only about50 percent . And the character of life for those undergo this treatment is short – imagine being hooked up to tubes and suffer your blood lap around like clothes in a laundry political machine , for hour , several multiplication a week .
So understandably there is a want for an alternative , which is whatVanderbiltresearchers , in coaction with the University of California , San Francisco , desire to finally achieve . A major part of the system they are developing is a nanofilter made of silicon that basically fishes out undesirable molecules from the blood , like waste products , excess water , and salinity . This is the kidney ’s main job , and also the part of dialysis machines , but progress in nanotechnology has led to better , more uniform pores that could mean more efficient filtering than the membranes across which molecule are exchanged in dialysis .
While we ’ve used the Scripture “ nano ” several time , this twist is not on the nose tiny ; it ’s about the size of a coffee cupful , so probably not far off the size of it of an factual kidney . But there is no pauperism to slay the kidneys to make room for it ; the bastard kidney is designed to be inserted nearby and hook up to both the patient ’s blood supplying and bladder .
There ’s still a lot to be done , but the group has just been present $ 6 million ( £ 4 million ) to work with , and state Tuesday at theAmerican Society of Nephrology Kidney Weekthat human trial within this X are on the agenda . But they ’re not the only ones hoping to get this far . Other groups are working on 3D printed replacement , while some are opting for growing them using shank cell . One study has even managed to embed research laboratory - grown kidney into animals that could then pass urine , although they admit human studies are way off
Another bright solution is a recently trialed hokey kidney that ’s kind of halfway between dialysis and this group ’s design . It ’s a wearable gimmick that ’s strapped around a patient ’s shank , weighing a small over four kilogram ( 10 dog pound ) . A diabetic gentleman’s gentleman whose kidneys start neglect two long time ago has just become thefirst in the U.S.to have one strapped on , albeit a prototype that ’s just proof - of - concept at the mo . Still , it seems there is progress being made , and the implantable artificial kidney project is place to be admit in the FDA ’s novel debauched - caterpillar track program that will hopefully race matter along .
