The opportunity to receive a Kidney Transplant offers great promise for those with Chronic Kidney Disease, especially patients on Dialysis. Still, in excess of 5,000 Chronic Kidney Disease patients of the over 100,000 patients on the Kidney Transplant List die each year while waiting for a Kidney Transplant due to a massive shortage of kidneys available for transplantation. Even patients who are lucky enough to receive transplants run the risk of their immune systems rejecting the donor kidneys. What's more, Chronic Kidney Disease patients have to take Immunosuppressive Drugs which often have serious side effects for the rest of their lives. However, "there may be a day when cell therapy will replace damaged kidney tissue," suggested Wake Forest School of Medicine.
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For instance, as previously reported, researchers at Stanford University and Tel Aviv University have discovered that kidneys are capable of continuously regenerating themselves. Now armed with this discovery of kidney regeneration in mice, the next step is to achieve kidney regeneration in humans which could lead to alleviating the shortage of kidneys for transplantation into Chronic Kidney Disease patients.
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Hence, promise of such research is to usher in an era of Regenerative Medicine, which uses the power of stem cells to restore healthy kidney function. Researchers at Northwestern University are using large quantities of reprogrammed cells to further pursue “the first steps toward rebuilding an organ using manufactured human cells.” Jason Wertheim (Assistant Professor at Feinberg School of Medicine) will lead the study by removing certain cells from a Kidney Structure and replace them with healthy kidney cells.
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Even more promising is the University of Washington's study on Kidney Rejuvenation, where researchers are currently conducting kidney trials on "large animals." Considered one of the "Holy Grails" of tissue engineering, researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way to use sound to create cellular scaffolding (a structure suitable for tissue regeneration). This is a unique approach which could help overcome one of Regenerative Medicine's significant obstacles, and effectively re-grow a kidney naturally in a patient without any "immune issues," suggested Yak-Nam Wang, a senior engineer at the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory.
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A KidneyBuzz.com viewer left a comment on the KidneyBuzz.com Facebook Fan Page which currently has over 17,500 Friends, and asked, "I keep seeing articles you re-post about kidney regeneration or rejuvenation at Stanford and other universities. You've always asked at the end of the article 'Would you volunteer?' Yes, I would. How can we get involved? How can we get on those lists?" Well, while breakthroughs such as the Wearable Artificial Kidney have already begun Human Trials (click here), and the Artificial Implantable Kidney Human Trials are expected to begin in 2017 (click here), KidneyBuzz.com has not yet received an estimated date for Stem Cell Kidney Rejuvenation Human Trials.
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Still, the KidneyBuzz.com Team will keep Chronic Kidney Disease and Dialysis viewers up-to-date on progress and important information. Visit KidneyBuzz.com every day for the latest Daily News and Information as well as Inspiration, Daily Impact Meals and Products and Services - all of which help those with Chronic Kidney Disease, Dialysis, and Diabetes better manage and improve their lives.
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