We’ve all had a family member or a friend, at some point in
time, that was at risk or actually needed an organ transplant. Whether it be an ear, skin, kidney, heart or
lung. We’ve all heart at least a little
bit about it.
We have heard about the associated difficulties of finding a
proper donor for the transplant. In the
case of skin or cartilage transplants (nose or ear, for example), the raw
material comes from another part of the body, hence avoiding any kind of immune
rejection and associated need for the patient to take immune system suppressants
for the rest of their lives. On the
other hand, such transplants generally leave scars either where it is
transplanted or where the raw material comes from.
In the case of internal organs like lungs, kidneys or
hearts, it requires an organ that comes from another human being. With kidneys or lungs, you can be lucky and
have a good match with a living family member of the correct size, since
theoretically, you only need 1 of those to survive, so you can each have 1 and
you’re good to go. For organs that don’t
come in pairs, like the heart, you need a match from a recently deceased, and
more often than not it won’t be a very good genetic match, since it’s fairly
rare that another matching family member (genetic family, not wives and second cousins)
would die at the right time when you need the organ for transplant. And then either way, you have to take immunosuppressants
for the rest of your life, else your own body will try to kill the foreign
cells (unless the source organ comes from an identical twin… but can you
imagine the odds of that actually happening?).
Now just so you know,
side effects of immunosuppressants could include, depending on which ones you
are taking:
- Osteoporosis
- Decrease in muscle function
- Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and secondary diabetes
- High cholesterol
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Gout
- Anxiety, depression and sexual drive reduction
- Unwanted hair growth
- Anemia
- Diarrhea and headaches
- And more
And of course, since your immune system is suppressed, you
are at higher risk of getting sick or fight things like cancer, which means transplant
patients will likely need more medicines, with their own side-effects, to
support the weakened immune system.
Thankfully, over the last couple years, scientists have
figured out wonderful ways to replace malfunctioning organs with functional
ones, either mechanical or biological, in ways that can keep your looks and
avoid all undesirable side-effects of the replacement organ.
Bionic organs
Boston University researchers seem to have successfully
found a way to treat Type 1 diabetes with a small battery-powered continuous injection
system using smart algorithms. It’s
really a mechanical pancreas you hook onto your belt that has a tiny sensor
fixed just under your belly’s skin and a small injection needle. Here is a good article about this device.
The sensor constantly measures the patient’s blood sugar
level and either injects glucagon or
insulin through the needle, letting
the patient relax about whether they need to take injections or having too low
blood sugar.
The worst fear of diabetics is to suffer from acute hyperglycemia,
having way too much blood sugar, since that can kill them fairly easily, put
patients in a coma and often cause other life-threatening problems. The little device replaces the pancreas’ job
of adding insulin into the bloodstream with the right amount as the person goes
about his or her day. Insulin allows
blood sugar to either enter cells to be consumed for energy or to be absorbed
into the liver to create glycogen (basically glucose storage).
Not as worrisome, having low blood sugar and also called
hypoglycemia, is also a concern, especially when patients are sleeping, because
if the blood sugar level goes too low, and can cause other effects such as: clumsiness, confusion, loss of consciousness,
seizures and even death in extreme cases. Most diabetics make sure they hike their blood sugar levels a bit more
before bed to ensure they avoid such issues while sleeping. Glucagon is normally produced by the pancreas
to take glucose out the liver’s storage, the glycogen, and back into the
bloodstream.
So the bionic pancreas, because it Is continuously connected
to it’s sensor and can inject both substances, prevents the blood sugar from
fluctuating too much, and tests with the device has shown that it is MUCH
better than any other method of controlling Type 1 diabetes out there so far. We take it for granted, but this
insulin-glucagon effect to balance sugar levels is super important. Too much roller coaster in your blood sugar
level and eventually diabetes patients can eventually lose the use of their
eyes, and even get their extremities amputated….
We should only hope that more bionic organs can be invented
like this one in such a way to avoid immune responses like described
above. The diabetic can then easily have
a normal life assisted with an easy to manage little snap on machine.
The opportunities are limitless here on inventing more
bionic devices but just on this one, one could figure out a way to remove the
need for the subdermal sensor by using a nano-intravenous sensor that transmits
information to your bionic device, for instance. Perhaps one can find a way to insert the
glucagon and insulin into the body using other methods that don’t pierce the
skin (super dermal method …
3D organic
replacement organs
Even better than bionic devices, scientists are working on
actually using 3D printing techniques combined with patient’s stem cells to
create brand new living organs that are fully accepted by the host body.
A team of researchers from the University of California (US)
and the University of Edinburgh (U.K.) have refined a technique that can create
molded cartilage replacements for deformities or lost noses and ears in
accidents, by using fat stem cells (you won’t miss those), a mold and a
specialized 3D printing device. The
growth is done outside of the patient to create the body part that is the right
size and shape, made of cartilaginous cells (the stem cells differentiate into
the cartilage through the technique into the mold). The body part, once grown, can then be
supplemented with some skin tissue as needed (if an ear or nose) from the
patient), and put into place. If the
body part is small enough, any needed blood vessels and other systems and
tissues grow into place naturally to make a fully functional organ, with no
immune response or need for medicine to keep it all intact.
Other groups have
also been able to do great things in this regard in the West, such as the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, who
have developed a specialized technique, again involving a special 3D printer,
to transplant cartilage-based organs, but also bone and muscle structures. One of their doctors has even been able to
make a successful bladder transplant using the patient’s stem cells. Here's an article demonstrating their progress so far.
Soon these groups and others will move on from animal
testing and start transplanting more complex organs like the aforementioned
Kidneys, hearts, lungs etc… from stem cells, making immunosuppressant issues a
thing of the past.
What seems to be holding lots of the research up in the West
is the political systems and religious lobbyists who are concerned about “playing
god” or the potential evil use of stem cells, which is why agnostic countries
like China have a leg up on the western world in this research currently.
But for those of you interested in changing the face of
medicine, surgery and help loads of people that have life threatening problems
such as dysfunctional or missing organs, now is your opportunity to make a real
solid difference in the world!
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