New life-saving technology for dialysis patients

[okarol]

New life-saving technology for dialysis patients

Updated: Wed 6:50 PM, May 28, 2014
By: Maureen McFadden - Email
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Nearly 400,000 Americans are on dialysis for kidney failure.

The treatment uses a special machine to filter toxins from the blood, and often requires a graft to connect an artery to a vein to speed blood flow.

But in many patients, synthetic grafts lead to infection and frequent hospitalizations.

Now a first of its kind bioengineered blood vessel is changing that.

William Alexander has suffered with kidney failure for 15 years. He is kept alive by dialysis.

"Ain't like you can't do it. You've got to have dialysis to live,” he said. “See this is the one they had

But his arm tells the story of failed blood vessel grafts used to help clean his blood.

It's a reality Dr. Jeffrey Lawson says most patients face.

“I tell many of my patients they can expect to have a procedure related to dialysis at least once a year," said Lawson.

A new bioengineered blood vessel using donated human cells could change that.

"We'll be able to reduce the number of interventions they have to have."

At the lab, Dr. Shannon Dahl says donated cells are placed in a bioreactor and cultured for two months.

"So we're growing the cells and we're putting the bioreactor parts together," said Dahl.

Once the vessel is formed, it's cleansed of the donor cells, leaving a collagen structure that the body readily accepts as its own.

"It then becomes your blood vessel as your body grows into it, which is very, very exciting," said Lawson.

William had the bioengineered vessel placed in his right arm eight months ago.

"I ain't have no trouble and it's doing good,” he said, “it's doing good and I'm glad it's doing good."

Since the bioengineered blood vessel is produced with no living cells, it could become the first off the shelf graft at hospitals, available as soon as a patient needs it.

Within the next year, the technology could be used for patients with peripheral artery disease.
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY

TOPIC: NEW HOPE FOR DIALYSIS: BIOENGINEERED BLOOD VESSELS
REPORT: MB # 3738

BACKGROUND: Dialysis is a treatment that does some of the things done by healthy kidneys. It is needed when your own kidneys can no longer take care of your body's needs. You need dialysis when you develop end stage kidney failure --usually by the time you lose about 85 to 90 percent of your kidney function. When your kidneys fail, dialysis keeps your body in balance by: removing waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body; keeping a safe level of certain chemicals in your blood, such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate; and helping to control blood pressure. (Source: kidney.org)
DR. LAWSON: "We've been involved in developing a bioengineered blood vessel really since the late 1990s. It's been very exciting work. The developed tube is intended to be used as a general blood vessel for sort ovascularf replacements anywhere in the body. This past year, we started our first in man clinical trials using this blood vessel and that's been used in a unique application for what's called vascular access for hemodialysis. That is really used as a prototype model for blood vessels in many applications, but this dialysis situation is a safe and easy way to begin to test the new vascular technology. So, we started using these blood vessels in that area. We hope to ultimately someday be able to use these blood vessels in things like the heart and the brain and really throughout the body." (Source: Dr. Lawson)
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Sarah Avery
Duke Medicine News and Communications
Office: 919-660-1306
Cell: 919-724-5343
sarah.avery@duke.edu

If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com

http://www.wndu.com/news/specialreports/headlines/New-life-saving-technology-for-dialysis-patients-260974981.html

[Charlie B53]

This is immense.  When I had my by-pass they took large veins out of both thighs, that caused a lot of swelling in my legs afterwards for months until the remaining veins swelled/enlarged enough to handle the flow that used to go thru those removed veins.

Using these would prevent all of that.  Totally removing any reason for any other incisions to the body other than the by-pass.

Add in the fact that it isn't 'donor' tissue, no rejection.  Wow!

It won't be long before they will be growing actual kidneys, with no rejective tissue!

Amazing!

[galvo]

Another very interesting article, Carol. Thanks.