5.1 Artificial Organs
Artificial organs, as the name suggests, are man-made organs for the patients
requiring an organ transplant. Worldwide there are numerous patients who are in
the waitlist of an organ transplant due to the unavailability of a suitable organ.
Therefore, this situation demands the development of devices that can replicate the
function of natural organs. Additionally, these artificial organs need to be developed
in way such that they should not be having any compatibility issues. In the recent
years, membranes are successfully used for the development of artificial organs,
namely, the kidney, pancreas, lung, and liver. Moreover, research is also going on in
the development of an artificial heart. Many breakthroughs were achieved in the
recent past in this mission of development of an artificial heart [1]. However, still a
lot of research and development are required to be successful due to the complexity
and vitality associated with this organ. Anyhow, great success is achieved in case of
other stated artificial organs. Some of the important artificial organs where membranes have proved their mettle are discussed below.
Artificial Kidney
Human beings are creatures with very efficient and complex machinery. This
machinery consists of various organs and vessels that take care of the organism.
Kidneys are one of the vital organs that sustain the organism by regulating its fluid
and salts. Humans are so efficient that they can sustain with only single kidney on
failure of one out of the two kidneys. However, in case of failure of both the kidneys,
artificial kidneys are required due to the unavailability of a suitable donor. Nevertheless, dialysis is the commonly used procedure before the development of artificial
kidneys. Dialysis is also a membrane-based device. The blood coming from the body
is permeated across a membrane, and the waste and excessive fluids are rejected. The
treated blood then again infused back to the body. Abel et al. were the first to
demonstrate the process of dialysis in early twentieth century [24]. They carried out
blood purification by using handmade collodiun tubes of cellulose. Dialysis was first
used on a patient in the year 1925 by Haas [25]. It was the year 1943, when the first
artificial kidney was developed by Kolff et al. [26]. Rotating drum dialyzer using
cellophane tubing membrane was used to develop the first artificial kidney. The
cellophane membrane wrapped wooden drum rotates in a dialysate solution, and the
blood arrives in it from the patient’s body for purification. It was a simple device, but
now dialysis is a well-developed blood purification procedure used across the world.
Artificial Liver
Human body depends upon many organs for its various functions. Liver is one of the
important organs out of many in a human body. The main function of the liver in a
human body is to keep it safe and free from various toxins. This function depends on
hepatocytes, the mature cells of the liver. Hepatocytes are parenchymal cells that
maintain contact with the body via other nonparenchymal cells, namely, Kupffer, pit,
sinusoidal endothelial, and stellate cells and bile duct. Liver failure occurs in case of
the autoimmune disease, hepatocellular cancer, long exposure to toxins, and viral
Membrane Technology in Bioprocess Engineering
19
Artificial organs, as the name suggests, are man-made organs for the patients
requiring an organ transplant. Worldwide there are numerous patients who are in
the waitlist of an organ transplant due to the unavailability of a suitable organ.
Therefore, this situation demands the development of devices that can replicate the
function of natural organs. Additionally, these artificial organs need to be developed
in way such that they should not be having any compatibility issues. In the recent
years, membranes are successfully used for the development of artificial organs,
namely, the kidney, pancreas, lung, and liver. Moreover, research is also going on in
the development of an artificial heart. Many breakthroughs were achieved in the
recent past in this mission of development of an artificial heart [1]. However, still a
lot of research and development are required to be successful due to the complexity
and vitality associated with this organ. Anyhow, great success is achieved in case of
other stated artificial organs. Some of the important artificial organs where membranes have proved their mettle are discussed below.
Artificial Kidney
Human beings are creatures with very efficient and complex machinery. This
machinery consists of various organs and vessels that take care of the organism.
Kidneys are one of the vital organs that sustain the organism by regulating its fluid
and salts. Humans are so efficient that they can sustain with only single kidney on
failure of one out of the two kidneys. However, in case of failure of both the kidneys,
artificial kidneys are required due to the unavailability of a suitable donor. Nevertheless, dialysis is the commonly used procedure before the development of artificial
kidneys. Dialysis is also a membrane-based device. The blood coming from the body
is permeated across a membrane, and the waste and excessive fluids are rejected. The
treated blood then again infused back to the body. Abel et al. were the first to
demonstrate the process of dialysis in early twentieth century [24]. They carried out
blood purification by using handmade collodiun tubes of cellulose. Dialysis was first
used on a patient in the year 1925 by Haas [25]. It was the year 1943, when the first
artificial kidney was developed by Kolff et al. [26]. Rotating drum dialyzer using
cellophane tubing membrane was used to develop the first artificial kidney. The
cellophane membrane wrapped wooden drum rotates in a dialysate solution, and the
blood arrives in it from the patient’s body for purification. It was a simple device, but
now dialysis is a well-developed blood purification procedure used across the world.
Artificial Liver
Human body depends upon many organs for its various functions. Liver is one of the
important organs out of many in a human body. The main function of the liver in a
human body is to keep it safe and free from various toxins. This function depends on
hepatocytes, the mature cells of the liver. Hepatocytes are parenchymal cells that
maintain contact with the body via other nonparenchymal cells, namely, Kupffer, pit,
sinusoidal endothelial, and stellate cells and bile duct. Liver failure occurs in case of
the autoimmune disease, hepatocellular cancer, long exposure to toxins, and viral
Membrane Technology in Bioprocess Engineering
19