What is the working principle of artificial kidney and its development process?

A team of scientists composed of engineers, biologists and physicists, led by Professor Shuvo Roy, MD of UCSF Medical Center, is expected to provide patients with an implantable artificial kidney after more than 20 years of efforts. This is a bionic device, which uses the same technology as making notebook computer chips and smart phone chips. Scientists stacked carefully designed silicon nanopore filters, then combined them with living kidney cells grown in the bioreactor, and packaged them in a human-friendly box, which was connected to the patient's circulatory system and bladder without external intubation. Artificial biological kidney is a precise device that can be surgically implanted and can be used to treat uremia alone. It has most biological functions of human true kidney.

The key of the device is silicon nano-scale microchip technology and living kidney cell culture technology. The equipment does not need a special power supply. Its power comes from the patient's heart-the natural pressure generated by blood flow in blood vessels-pushing blood through the filter. In addition, this technology also has a novel molecular coating, which can protect the silicon film and make it compatible with blood. First of all, the microchip blood filter module of silicon nanometer level is responsible for processing the input blood and generating ultrafiltrate containing dissolved toxins, sugars and salts. Secondly, the artificial cultured kidney cell bioreactor is responsible for treating ultrafiltrate and sending sugar and salt back to the blood. In this process, water is also reabsorbed into the body, and the ultrafiltrate is concentrated into urine, which is excreted through the bladder.

Analysis of intermittent blood uremia toxin is very high, uremia toxin is cleared quickly after dialysis, one is high and the other is low, so patients are not easy to adapt. At present, there is no special conclusion on how long uremia patients can live on hemodialysis, which is related to everyone's own physique and medical history. Dialysis can't simulate all the functions of human kidney. Portable dialysis machines will need miniaturized components, so they can't use so much water, and the biological materials needed in portable devices will also face strict supervision, but a new wave of financing is reversing years of stagnation.