Scientists Create an Artificial Kidney Prototype

I have kidney disease from having diabetes a long time. I know someone who is on dialysis for it. I may get there eventually. He goes to the dialysis center at Barnes hospital three times a week to get his blood cleaned out. He has what is called a fistula in his left arm. The fistula is a surgically implanted big vein that is also hooked to an artery.

When my friend undergoes dialysis, two large needles are inserted into the fistula. It hurts pretty bad as you can imagine. A couple of times they penetrated the outer wall of the fistula resulting in a hematoma. His arm is one big permanent bruise.

Bob is on the transplant list and has been for two years. A kidney transplant right now would probably save his life because diabetics don't normally do very well on dialysis. But there are drawbacks to getting a transplanted kidney as well. There's always the risk of rejection as well as the anti-rejection drugs which contain steroids. They have the risk of some serious complications.

The ideal solution would be to develop an artificial kidney that worked. So far that has been a dream, but now it may be getting closer to being a reality. According to www.popsi.com :

"An artificial kidney powered by the circulatory system could be the first implantable device to replace kidney donation and dialysis, scientists say. Led by a University of California team, researchers unveiled a new artificial kidney prototype this week, saying a room-sized version has already shown promise for the sickest patients."

Processes used to fabricate computer chips could be used to make the final implantable unit about the size of a coffee cup. We already have the technology to make an artificial kidney. It's called a dialysis machine. But this one would be much smaller and could be implanted into the human body. And there's another difference:

The new artificial would also have a "bioreactor" that would be composed of the patient's own kidney cells. These cells would perform all of the metabolic functions that a normal kidney performs like controlling sodium and blood pressure levels.

Since the cells would be from the patient's own body, there would be no need for anti-rejection drugs. These drugs are expensive and carry a lot of side-effects.

Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-09/researchers-announce-first-artificial-kidney-prototype