Can an Artificial Kidney Finally Free Patients from Dialysis? | Hacker News Reader

Can an Artificial Kidney Finally Free Patients from Dialysis?

nature.com

44 pointsgardenfelder13 comments

As another commenter mentioned, it would be better to use the actual title of the paper "Feasibility of an implantable bioreactor for renal cell therapy using silicon nanopore membranes" - because arguably this is not an "artificial kidney", but a device containing natural kidney cells (a bioreactor containing renal cells) with an added silicon nanopore membrane designed to prevent the immune system from killing the foreign kidney cells. That's why they're using the term "bioartificial kidney".

Full title would not fit.

Not the same link, but previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37362132

Even better would be to avoid diabetes and hypertension, diseases that are essentially caused and shaped by personal lifestyle. Overeating, malnutrition, lack of exercise.

> Overeating, malnutrition, lack of exercise.

Are you saying we need a new monoclonal antibody to address this?

From a healthy business perspective, the most profitable technical solution should always be preferred to behavioral therapy and social change... Ozempic is a great example.

Lots of people on dialysis are there through no fault of their own. My mother and other members of my family were born with a kidney disease, and died while doing everything correctly.

My grandmother practically a vegetarian, worked on a farm, up at 4am each day to bake bread, had 10 children. Walked everywhere and never sat around not in any way fat. She developed type II diabetes.

My Dad was overweight but active. Later in life after retirement sat around but still fished and like yard work and home repairs. His brothers and sisters had diabetes Dad never developed it.

I'm not denying poor lifestyle can be a cause then again it can seem to be a crap shoot.

Even doing everything right doesn’t mean you won’t have this happen to you.

I’m an avid cyclist that does hundreds of miles per week, I have type 2 diabetes with an A1c score better than most normal adults, I’m not overweight, have normal blood pressure and with all of that I’m still in stage 3 renal failure.

Do you have any experience with the devastation caused by illness out of your control?

Sure, I'm working for German health insurances and service providers in data engineering, data analysis and BI Reporting, know the studies and statistics and once was a dialysis and intensive care specialised nurse for 12 years. I placed the last dialysis cannula in 2006 on a Cimino shunt and connected the patient to a Fresenius 4008B. We also used Gambro AK 200, but for some reasons we prefered the handling of the Fresnius machines. Are these types of devices still in use today?

I also read the patient files and talked to the patients. You have quite a close relationship with people you care for professionally on average three times a week for 4-5 hours over years. You know them quite well after some time.

But, you can't base health care decisions on anecdota, can't you? But, I found that the statistics corresponded to my observations. People are peole.

Of course, not everyone who is overweight gets kidney failure, and not everyone with kidney failure has it because of their lifestyle.

There are chains of probabilities that add up. That's a no-brainer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_kidney_disease#Causes

Oh, good, victim-blaming.

>Feasibility of an implantable bioreactor for renal cell therapy using silicon nanopore membranes

Reply on news.ycombinator.com