I can extract side effects.

Chapter 589 Biological Artificial Kidney

"Is this a bioartificial kidney?"

Wei Kang stretched out his left hand wearing a rubber glove, picked up a pear-sized cylinder, put it in his hand and looked at it carefully.

The shell of this thing seems to be a layer of flexible metal, exuding a soft silver-white luster, and the palm of the hand can feel a slight coolness through the rubber, but there is no hard feeling.

The top is firmly connected to a thick rubber tube, and the two outlets at the end are also connected to the tube, but there are two thinner tubes, one big and one small.

"That's right, this is an artificial kidney that can replace the function of the kidney, purify the blood, and excrete the metabolic waste in the blood into urine."

Ding Mian stood beside him, a faint radiance appeared on his face, it was the radiance of confidence, he talked with eloquence.

"For a long time, the only way to cure end-stage renal disease is kidney transplantation, and the shortage of kidney sources has always been very serious."

"With the development of medical technology, kidney transplantation has progressed from human-human allogeneic transplantation to clinical-level pig-human xenotransplantation."

"Although the effect is not bad, the world's first pig-human kidney transplant patient successfully produced urine 20 minutes after the operation, and the transplanted pig kidney survived in vivo for 74 hours without acute rejection."

"The patient later died of massive bleeding, but whatever it was, it opened the door for xenotransplantation."

"Of course, such a solution also has a lot of hidden dangers, and the medium and long-term rejection reaction cannot be predicted."

"Therefore, scientists have turned their attention to artificial kidneys without giving up."

"The hemodialysis machine can alleviate the uremia crisis and replace the function of the kidney, but it also has many inconveniences such as high price, infection, blood coagulation, painful needle injection, and poor convenience. If the artificial kidney is successfully developed, it will definitely solve these problems."

"Speaking of artificial kidneys, we must first understand the basic functions of the kidneys."

"The human kidney has 200 million glomeruli and tubular cells, which are responsible for metabolism. The former filters blood, intercepts specific molecules, and forms a screening function. The latter has a reabsorption function, which can absorb water and electrolytes again to form the final product. urine."

"Our artificial kidney simulates the functions of glomeruli and renal tubules, achieving the same effect as a kidney."

"The tube above it is connected to the artery, and the arterial blood flows into the artificial kidney, and first passes through the 'blood filter', that is, the artificial glomerulus, which has a specially designed porous nanofiltration membrane that allows specific molecules to pass through. Intercept everything else."

"The filtered blood continues to pass through the bioreactor, and there are living renal tubular cells cultured on the silica gel membrane inside, as well as some other components, which can simulate the 'reabsorption' function of the renal tubules."

"Finally, the lower two tubes, the thicker one connects to the venous blood vessel, which sends healthy blood back, and the other thinner tube connects to the bladder, which excretes the urine full of metabolic waste."

"This whole set of equipment can completely replace the function of the kidney."

"Its biggest highlight is that the filtration mechanism completely imitates the working mode of the human kidney, so the efficiency is very high. An artificial kidney of this size can produce about 24 milliliters of urine in 800 hours, which is very close to the real efficiency. kidney."

"The artificial kidney in your hand can receive 300ml of blood per minute, 90% of which will be filtered out by the blood filter to form 30ml of primary urine, and finally filtered through the reabsorption function to become urine only 0.6ml about."

"Of course, this artificial kidney is currently made for animal experiments, so it is made a little smaller. If it is to be implanted in the human body, it will be made a little bigger to better meet the needs of the human body."

"This kind of efficiency is much higher than the current main treatment for uremia - hemodialysis, and it is also much more convenient."

"If patients undergo dialysis every day, they have to stay next to the dialysis machine for several hours. In addition to waiting in line, there is not much time left in the day. This greatly restricts personal freedom, and many things cannot be done, even work. Had to give up."

"And our artificial kidney, as long as it is implanted in the body, can replace the kidney and allow patients to return to a normal life. They don't even need a urine bag."

After Ding Mian finished speaking in one breath, he showed a complacent smile.

Wei Kang said with a smile: "Well done, how did you guys come up with this thing in the first place? I remember that the artificial kidney project has not been approved. So you guys did it secretly?"

Ding Mian's complexion changed, and he said quickly: "Speaking of which, it was a complete accident that we were doing artificial kidney at that time."

"It's actually a bonus of the artificial bladder project."

"When I was doing an artificial bladder, because blood was filtered to produce urine, I made a simulated urinary system, but I couldn't solve the problem of reabsorption, resulting in incomplete filtration of urine and blood residue in it."

"Later, a batch of renal tubular cells were cultivated using stem cells, and some materials were added to enhance the absorption function, so this problem was solved."

"I was so excited after finishing the work. I didn't think about approving the project first. I just found a dog and made a finished product and put it in."

"As a result, the experiment was successful. After the dog had a kidney removed, the artificial kidney in the dog's body also performed the function of the kidney, and the urinary function did not decline."

"This means the emergence of a general-purpose implantable bioartificial kidney that can adjust the water-salt balance without a blood pump, and has achieved results in animal models."

Speaking of this, Ding Mian scratched his hair and said with a simple smile.

"Hehe, it was only at this time that we found out that the artificial kidney was actually made by going wrong."

Wei Kang showed surprise and couldn't help admiring.

"I didn't expect that the artificial bladder project could also hatch an artificial kidney by the way. It's really unintentional."

"You are really great. I am deeply proud that Sanqing has scientists like you."

He looked at the artificial kidney in his hand, and suddenly realized that something seemed to be missing.

"Is there only three pipes in this device? There are no other external things? Are there no power cords or anything?"

Ding Mian smiled and shook his head: "No, it is the perfect crystallization of physics and chemistry, full of concise beauty, without any superfluous things."

Wei Kang asked suspiciously: "You just said that there are only blood filters and bioreactors inside, so where is the power source? What is the whole device driven by? Electric energy? Bioenergy? Or something else?"

Ding Mian waved his hand and explained with a smile.

"We use the normal blood pressure difference of the human body as the power source for blood flow filtration, so that there is no need to use a blood pump, which greatly reduces the volume and does not require additional energy, so it can be implanted in the human body and work in the body for a long time."

Wei Kang nodded, and then glanced at the silent Xue Shen next to him, feeling relieved.

"I am very happy that the two of you are joining forces to develop a new project."

"The filter membrane used in this artificial kidney, and the use of blood pressure difference as a power source are all physical functions. It is probably Xue Shen's handwriting."

Ding Mian nodded repeatedly, and praised his little friend generously.

"That's right, it's all thanks to Brother Xue's efforts that this project can go so smoothly."

"Brother Xue has developed a nano-scale silicon pore membrane, which is very similar to glomerular cells, which can prevent the passage of large molecules and allow small molecules to pass through."

"There is also the silica gel membrane in the bioreactor, which is conducive to maintaining the activity of renal tubular cells, which plays a key role."

"In addition, he also gave a lot of optimization suggestions from a physical point of view for a lot of data used in the experiment, which was very helpful."

Wei Kang was about to nod, when he suddenly remembered a question and asked.

"I know that kidney cells in the human body are permanent cells with a particularly strong compensatory ability, and can be repaired spontaneously if damaged, but if they are completely damaged, they cannot be recovered, which also leads to the occurrence of uremia."

"As for this bioreactor, the main components of the bioreactor inside are kidney tubular cells, which sounds good, but they are all artificially cultured cells, and their compensatory ability is definitely not as good as that of real kidney cells. Will it die?"

"After a certain period of time, if these cells harden and die, what should we do?"

"So does it need to be replaced periodically? Or what?"

"If it is replaced regularly, its application prospects may be relatively limited, and it cannot be considered a true implantable bioartificial kidney."

When Ding Mian heard this series of questions, the smile on his face disappeared immediately, and his head froze like an eggplant beaten by frost.

He sighed a long time, and said in a low voice: "Mr. Wei, there is indeed this problem. Although we can prolong the survival period of renal tubular cells, after all, they are placed in a closed device, and their biological activity is really limited."

"And if it is used intensively, the cells themselves will not be able to compensate and repair."

"After a long time, it will definitely lose its activity, but the exact time is hard to estimate, it depends on the usage."

"We have done tests, and after a minimum of six months, the renal tubular cells will begin to undergo hyalinization, unable to complete their established functions."

"In this case, only by replacing the bioreactor can it continue to be used."

"In addition, there is another problem of equipment maintenance. Over time, not only the renal tubular cells will have problems, but even the silicon porous membrane will easily cause blood clots during hemodialysis, resulting in a decline in filtration function."

"Although the artificial kidney has been researched and the animal experiments have been successful, these two problems do exist."

"In the future, long-term experiments are needed to observe adverse reactions and long-term prognosis after implantation."

Wei Kang smiled and said: "It's okay, now that the problem is discovered, there is a direction to work hard. I believe that one day in the future, you will be able to solve this problem."

He showed a thoughtful expression, and said in a deep voice.

"Maybe we can make it into a non-implantable artificial kidney, at least it is very light and powerful, and can replace most of the kidney functions."

"Patients can hang it on their body like a urine bag, so that they can urinate every day, instead of holding it for two days before going to dialysis. It should be known that for severe patients, it may be more than a few hours, which is prone to accidents. "

"This thing might be able to get a patient off the dialysis machine and allow them to live a normal life with a little bit of decency again."

Ding Mian's eyes lit up, and he blurted out: "Mr. Wei, you are right, I just thought about getting it right in one step."

"This artificial kidney may not completely solve the patients' problems now, but at least it can gradually improve their lives."

"Eat food one bite at a time, and walk the road step by step. First think about solving the problem, and then find a way to solve the problem more beautifully."

"But don't worry, I will continue to work with Brother Xue to see if I can make the artificial kidney into an implantable finished product."

Xue Shen also hurriedly patted his chest to make sure.

"Mr. Wei, don't worry, the project is definitely a phased result. Step by step, we will first make the non-implantable artificial kidney, and then work on the implantable artificial kidney."

Wei Kang smiled slightly, gently placed the artificial kidney in his hand on the workbench, and looked around in the laboratory.

"Where's the experimental dog with the artificial kidney implanted? Take me to see how it's doing."

"In another room, I'll take you there." Ding Mian said hastily.

The three of them came to another room, where the entire wall was densely packed with cages, which housed various experimental animals.

Wei Kang saw the puppies in the bottom row of cages at a glance.

The puppy was lying on its back in the cage, but when it saw someone coming in, it immediately stood up, its fluffy head pushed out, and it whined.

Ding Mian was surprised and said: "The dog looks much more energetic today. It seems that he just had an operation a few days ago and is still recovering. Now he has fully recovered."

He was still a little worried at first, for fear that the boss would see a sick and lifeless puppy, but he didn't expect that the puppy would regain its vigor in just a day or two, and he felt relieved.

So he continued: "After traditional kidney transplantation, immunosuppressants need to be used for a long time, but this dog only took anti-platelet drugs and did not receive immunosuppressants."

"Compared to large animal models of kidney failure, the artificial kidney significantly improves blood volume and excretes excess fluid in dogs."

Wei Kang walked over and stroked the dog's head.

The puppy stuck out its tongue and licked his hand, with big wet eyes, it looked full of spirituality.

Wei Kang checked the wound on the puppy, and found that it was almost healed, and there were no obvious marks on the outside.

Press lightly, but you can feel a little hardness in the waist and abdomen.

It's just that he didn't dare to push hard, he was afraid that the puppy would hurt, so he withdrew his hands after a while.

"Yes, it seems that our first patient is in good condition, let's continue to observe."

"If those two problems can't be solved, I'm afraid it will have to be done again, and the implanted artificial kidney will be taken out of the dog's body and made into an external artificial kidney."

Wei Kang thought about it, and suddenly felt a little bit of anticipation.

"When it enters the clinic, those patients with end-stage renal disease will be able to completely get rid of the dialysis machine and use a convenient and efficient artificial kidney."

"Such a scene, thinking about it, is a little exciting."

(End of this chapter)