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‘Kidney-on-a-Chip’ Could Save Lives

‘Kidney-on-a-Chip’ Could Save Lives
‘Kidney-on-a-Chip’ Could Save Lives

Many lifesaving drugs can be dangerously toxic to the kidneys. Because there are a number of factors that change the way kidneys process drugs, it is very difficult to predict how they will affect each patient. Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a “kidney-on-a-chip” that promises to make testing the effects of drugs on the kidney quicker and more reliable.

The kidneys are a pair of organs that play a number of vital roles in the human body. Their functions include waste management, regulating fluids, and balancing minerals.

They help orchestrate the production of red blood cells and, every 30 minutes, the kidneys filter the body’s entire volume of blood.

Damage to an organ with so many important functions is a serious medical issue; any new technology that might help protect the kidneys has the potential to be a lifesaver, medicalnewstoday.com reported.

Up to two-thirds of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) experience some level of kidney damage and 20% of the damage cases are due to drug toxicity.

Kidneys respond to drugs differently depending on a number of factors, including the age of the patient, current medications, and other diseases that they might have. Because of this, determining what drug dosage to use can be challenging.

A research team, led by Prof. Shuichi Takayama, has designed a microfluidic chip device that mimics the way in which drugs are removed by the kidneys.

The device consists of a permeable polyester membrane and a layer of cultured human kidney cells sandwiched between an upper and lower compartment.

By closely mimicking the internal environment of the kidney, the team hopes that the device will become a reliable way of testing medications on the kidney.

“When you administer a drug, its concentration goes up quickly and it’s gradually filtered out as it flows through the kidneys. A kidney-on-a-chip enables us to simulate that filtering process, providing a much more accurate way to study how medications behave on the kidney.

Looking to the future, Takayama hopes that the device can be taken “to the point where we’re able to see exactly how a medication affects the body from moment to moment, in real time.”

If the device proves successful, it has the potential to significantly reduce drug-related kidney damage in the ICU and elsewhere.

Financialtribune.com