One of the biggest changes EVER in the world of kidney disease treatment is coming.
Dialysis as we know it may become a thing of the past starting as soon as 2022.
This man is living proof.
... ...
Katherine from 00kidney here, welcome to our journey together to a better kidney health.
Dialysis may be a thing of the past in a really short amount of time.
In today's video I want to show you the 4 innovations that will make this possible.
Starting from Number 4
The 3d printed kidney.
There was a big breakthrough recently in the world of 3d printed organs.
It's called bioink and it's something that could actually lead to the creation of the
first 3d printed kidney.
This is what researchers from the award-winning Lewis Lab at Harvard University are hoping.
They are developing a 3d printed kidney made from stem cells AND modelled using a special
liquid material known as bioink.
Which is an incredible innovation.
This is actually the most advanced project in the field of regenerative medicine and
could change the lives of millions of people around the world.
So yes, what could be replacing dialysis in the next few years are kidneys made by a 3d
printer.
Just like consumer grade 3d printers, where plastic material is deposited in layers forming
the structure we want, 3D bioprinting uses a typical layer-by-layer 3D printing method.
The big difference would be the ink used.
We are talking about a 3d bioprinter here.
So the 3D printing method most known for bioprinting is the extrusion of liquid material made from
collagen, here known as bioink.
This is a gel which acts as a 3D molecular scaffold for live tissue.
In the case of the kidneys, this live tissue would be Mesenchymal stem cells.
And if you think that this sounds like sci-fi - not something that could change the world
of kidney disease in the next few years - watch this.
What you see here is the first full size, completely 3d printed human heart!
Amazing, isn't it?
It was created by researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University.
According to them, the new 3D printing process wasn't easy to develop.
This is because soft materials, such as collagen, start out as a liquid.
When such substances are printed in air, they quickly collapse.
So the researchers came up with their own method to 3D print soft materials.
The method uses a gelatin substance to surround the structures during the printing so they
do not collapse.
The team's new model heart is made from a material called alginate, a soft, natural
substance made from seaweed.
So yes, they already have printed a full sized human heart and they are also using this technology
for skin and bone repair.
But, you know, they should have started from a kidney, in my opinion.
More people have kidney disease than heart disease.
The kidney is by far the most needed organ for transplant.
In fact, in the US in the last 30 years, more kidney transplants have been performed than
all other organ transplants combined.
But probably they thought that 3d printing a human kidney wouldn't make the news.
Also, the kidneys are very complex organs.
They filter 140 liters of blood each day, leaving behind a liter or two of water and
waste in the form of urine.
Each kidney features a latticework of roughly one million tiny filtering units, called nephrons.
Blood entering a nephron passes through a cluster of tiny vessels called the glomerulus.
The thin walls of the glomerulus enable waste, water and other small molecules to pass through,
while blocking larger ones such as proteins and blood cells.
The reason why I'm telling you this is because there's been an incredible development in
the making of the 3d printed kidney.
Researchers from The State University of New York at Buffalo have found a way to create
vascularized organs with a 3d printer.
So guys, don't go away because in the next part of the video I will give you all the
info about the release dates of this breakthrough.
Before, there's another incredible technology I want to show you.
It has to do with sheep.
Sheep on dialysis.
No, I'm not joking.
There's a startup that promises to change dialysis patients lives for good.
our number 3 is the World's Smallest, Wearable Kidney
This previous year, three sheep in Canada have been carrying their kidneys on their
sleeves.
Or more properly, in jackets on their fluffy backs.
These three sheep are a part of an ongoing animal examine run by the Buffalo, New York-based
startup Qidni Labs - just like kidney but with a Q - an organization pursuing waterless
mobile dialysis.
This device is called the Qidni/D and it is a miniature dialysis machine that the patient
can wear and that allows to be mobile during blood purification.
It completely replaces dialysis, provides more frequent therapy, and significantly improves
the quality of life for patients with kidney failure who are currently on dialysis.
The incredible innovation here is that they are able to purify the blood without using
extra water.
Existing dialysis requires 120 liters of dialysate for one session of dialysis - not something
you could carry around on your back.
But this system is different - it's incredibly small and lightweight.
It's so small the researchers from the Qidni Labs are already planning an implantable version
of it.
The way they are able to do this is thanks to a nanofilter.
Researchers from the Qidni Labs spent two years developing a nanofilter device that
mimics the filtration function of the kidney.
And it works.
Qidni Labs now has a device that is being tested on animal models such as sheep.
That testing will continue over the next 18 to 20 months.
After that they will proceed with human trials.
"Our long-term vision is for a device that can be implanted in the body - said Morteza
Ahmadi, co-founder of the Qidni labs.
But initially, the first product that we hope to be able to bring to market would be an
external, wearable and miniaturized device that the patients would be carrying with them"
And if you think this still looks like sci-fi, I want YOU to look at this interview
he was the first man on earth to use a wearable kidney instead of dialysis.
it was pretty exciting to be able to be choosen in the first place
I was amazed at how well it worked I thought it really worked well for me
it was heavy and cumbersome but I would be wearing it today if I could
What's more, he was also really happy about the way this wearable kidney performed dialysis.
You see, dialysis is not very good at removing phosphorus.
The wearable kidney, on the other hand, is.
This could mean no more dietary restrictions, among various other things.
In this picture, the first man who tested the wearable kidney is seen with a bag of
Cheetos, during the clinical trial.
now, this was a different project from what the researchers at the Qidni Labs are working
on right now.
It's a different kind of wearable dialysis machine that's already being tested on humans,
as you can see.
And it's amazing by itself already.
Now guys, the reason why I really think this is gonna change our future is because, according
to an estimate, over 20 million people are in need for a kidney transplant right now.
But for many of them the only option is dialysis.
We are in 2021 now and ... do you know what changed in the way a dialysis machine works
since 1978?
Do you know?
Nothing.
Nothing changed.
If you brought a patient on dialysis from 1978 forward in time 43 years, he wouldn't
have a very different experience from what they were used to.
They may have an iPhone to read on instead of a pile of magazines.
And that's all.
This is why even just a small step in the right direction - the wearable kidney - would
be a great achievement.
If you add to this the fact that there's actually a major health crisis today - in terms of
the shortage of organs - it's easy to understand why people are so pissed at the complete lack
of progress in the treatment of kidney disease.
And we are talking million people here.
It's something I think about always more frequently and I really hope this kind of innovation
is going to help.
Now guys, as I was saying, there's a big development that's really going to speed up the development
of the first 3d printed human kidney.
More about this in a moment, there's a very recent news I want to show you before.
Now guys, this is big Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center
- an institution on the front lines of the world epidemic of diabetes - have made a startling
discovery.
According to them, this could be the end of kidney disease in people with diabetes.
Incredible.
What they found out is that "Elevated levels of three specific circulating
proteins are associated with protection against kidney failure in diabetes"
this is literally from last Wednesday - this study was published the 30th of June.
Now guys, these researchers may be on the edge of a key moment in the hunt for a cure
to diabetes and related loss of kidney function.
These 3 protein are what doctors and researchers call a biomarker.
A biomarker is just a substance, a level that can be measured during lab tests which is
indicative of a disease.
Or, like in this case, with the nonprogression of a disease.
In fact, in this study, people with diabetes with elevated concentrations of three specific
proteins - had zero progression of kidney disease.
Which is incredible in my opinion.
This basically means 2 things.
First, testing these proteins can tell a diabetes patient IF they're going to have kidney problem
in the future.
Second, a prevention for diabetic kidney disease could be engineered in the near few years.
Guys, I'm really waiting for a follow up on this study because - as you may already know
- diabetes is the number 1 cause in the world of kidney disease.
This incredible breakthrough can be used to create a medicine or a therapy to completely
stop kidney disease progression in people with diabetes.
Amazing.
So guys, be sure to set the notification bell on all for my channel if you want me to keep
you updated about this.
Ok guys, before I show you our number for today, here's why I think the 3d printed kidney
may be a reality sooner than people think.
A team of scientists from the University at Buffalo has developed a new 3D bioprinting
technique that is up to 50 times faster than the second-best methods available.
The researchers have thus managed to reduce the time required to create a cell-laden hydrogel
structure to just 19 minutes from the average 6 hours.
Incredible.
Notably, the researcher's new approach uses a combination of a 3D printing process called
stereolithography that uses a laser beam to fabricate a structure layer by layer, and
hydrogels that act as cell support while facilitating the formation of an ideal tissue.
Aside from being fast and efficient, the method is perfect for printing cells with built-in
blood vessel networks, which is clearly crucial for the development of implantable organs.
Embedded vessel networks fabricated through 3d printing allow the institution of barrier
functions - like those the human kidney has.
This project shows a rapid 3D hydrogel printing method and represent a first step toward the
fabrication of large-sized engineered tissue models.
Now, the number 1 reason why I think dialysis could be a thing of the past in a matter of
years is The bioartificial implantable kidney from
the University of California, San Francisco.
This is an implantable, lab-made kidney that promises to do exactly what the human kidneys
do.
They are testing the hemofilter - a key part of the artificial implantable kidney - right
now in a series of tests aimed at receiving FDA approval to implant this device on human
already in 2022.
There was a big update about it recently.
I've talked more in depth about this in my video up here.
Ok guys, as usual, a new video is coming next Friday - I hope to see you there.
In the meantime, keep taking good care of your kidneys and be good to yourself.
This is all for today, thank you for watching!