Artificial Organs: Future Savior of Many
- Kyung Chan
- Jan 25, 2022
- 2 min read
Organ failure is when a vital organ of the body ceases to function, leaving the body vulnerable. Every year, millions are awaiting their transplantation. Those who are fortunate enough can have the transplant done and enjoy a new life with gratitude. However, unfortunate people have to endure the pain long before they receive a transplant and some inevitably die in the waiting. This regretful matter is due to the incomparably fewer number of donors compared to those in need as well as the difficulty in finding a suitable organ for the recipient where many different factors play such as blood type, height, weight, immune system compatibility, and distance from donor hospital to name a few. However, what if there were apparatus that can substitute the functions of the original organ and be manufactured according to the recipient? This is not a mere dream. Artificial organs will be there to save the day!
IMG Credit: BioSpace
An artificial organ is a replacement for the faulty organ in the patient. Despite the unfamiliarity toward artificial organs of most people, the history of the artificial organ dates as far back as 1885, when M. von Frey and M. Gruber built the earliest heart-lung device to investigate organ perfusion. However, the real breakthrough came in 1982. Willem Kloff, who is now hailed as the father of artificial organs, and his colleagues were successful in implanting an artificial heart in a patient who lived for 112 days thanks to it. Several decades have passed since. As such, there were several breakthroughs in the development of artificial organs. In 2002, Thoratec Corporation got approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permanent use of the HeartMate VE LVAD and HeartMate II LV AS in 2008, which is used to prolong the life of patients at risk of death from a nonreversible left ventricular failure until the transplantation. The most notable success came from the utilization of stem cells in creating artificial tissue. Stem cells are cells that can develop into various types of cells with specialized functions. The utilization of stem cells in producing artificial organs is advantageous because it reduces the likelihood of the body rejecting the artificial organs. In 2017, Michele de Luca and Graciela Pellegrini at the University of Modena in Italy managed to correct the DNA in stem cells of a patient whose faulty genes made the skin vulnerable to tear. Employing stem cells along with gene therapy, the patient’s skin was normal even after five years since the treatment. Since then, the subsequent advancements allowed Karl Koehler and his colleagues at the Boston Children’s Hospital to fully grow the entirety of the skin in 2020 although further evaluation is needed for clinical use. However, it is still far away from being able to successfully grow organs in the laboratory as organs are much more complicated than tissues. Nevertheless, it is without a doubt that we are much closer to the day where patients no longer have to blindly await their turn that may or may not be in time.
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