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- Title
The future of renal replacement: Needs and applications.
- Authors
Platt, Jeffrey L.
- Abstract
For those with uremia, renal function is presently replaced by dialysis or allotransplantation. Neither approach is ideal physiologically and allotransplantation suffers from limited availability of donors. In the future, the need to replace or amplify renal function may increase dramatically as molecular diagnosis identifies those at risk for cancer and renal failure, and as small impairments of renal function are found to increase cardiovascular risk. The heightened demand for renal replacement may be met by the development or advancement of technologies, including stem cells, cloning, organogenesis, and xenotransplantation. The ideal replacement of renal function, however, may not be achieved by any one of the technologies, but rather by a combination. Cloning, stem cells, organogenesis and xenotransplantation can potentially be combined for replacement of renal function. New technologies or combinations of technologies for replacement or regeneration of renal function share certain challenges. One challenge is the need to generate organs or organ-like structures that exhibit adequate function. Another challenge is that the achieving of adequate size engenders some risk of tumor formation. Still another challenge stems from the controversy regarding the capacity of stem cells to differentiate or transdifferentiate and the possibility that fusion of stem cells or their progeny with differentiated cells may contribute to regeneration and histogenesis. The implications of cell fusion in such systems were discussed.
- Subjects
UREMIA; DIALYSIS (Chemistry); TRANSPLANTATION of organs, tissues, etc.; MOLECULAR diagnosis; CANCER risk factors; MORPHOGENESIS; STEM cells
- Publication
Kidney International, 2005, Vol 68, Issue 5, p1972
- ISSN
0085-2538
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1523-1755.2005.00630_21.x