Scientists have engineered a man-made kidney that will help within the early detection of adversarial reactions to medicines and determine the extent of their toxicity.

Aside from eliminating waste products and excess fluid from the body, human kidneys are highly complex organs that perform multiple functions, including homeostasis or a state of equilibrium. Kidneys perform homeostasis function by regulating acid-base balance, the concentration of electrolytes, controlling blood pressure, and secreting hormones.

Most drugs, especially water-soluble medicines, are disposed from human bodies largely by the kidneys in the shape of urine. Nevertheless, certain medications could cause toxicity in kidneys and end in rapid deterioration of renal function.

When excessive drugs are administered, nephrons–the fundamental unit of kidneys–are the primary to exhibit toxicity.

Hence, it is necessary to know the concentrations and combos of medicine that could cause adversarial effects within the kidneys. Scientists have now engineered artificial kidneys to judge the potential toxicity before they’ll administer the drugs to humans.

“We’ve successfully replicated glomerular units of the kidney, which provide the boundless potential for drug screening and nephrotoxicity testing in clinical practice. This development will enable us to detect drug toxicity early by facilitating glomerulus disease modeling and to supply personalized treatment for patients,” Professor Dong-Woo Cho, who led the study conducted at Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea, said, Medical News reported.

Making of the synthetic kidney

Human kidneys are fabricated from hundreds of thousands of nephrons that consist of small blood vessels, called glomerulus. Glomerulus are the filtering units of kidneys that release protein through interactions of podocytes and GBM proteins at a microscopic scale.

The technique of making artificial kidneys was quite complex since it was hard to copy the protein-releasing ability of the glomerulus.

The research team, nevertheless, successfully fabricated a glomerular microvessel-on-a-chip that replicated the intricate arrangement of the glomerulus in kidneys.

The scientists then tested the selective permeability of the model, a key function of the glomerular filtration barrier in kidneys. The model was also tested for Adriamycin- and hyperglycemia-induced injury.

The findings of the study were published within the journal Biofabrication.

Kidneys are the primary organs to exhibit drug toxicity within the body.
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