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jonatron5 jonatron5
wrote...
Posts: 15
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8 years ago
I only spent 2 years studying biology in college before I found my true love IT. I'm an insanely pragmatic person and I Have dabbled into a little bit of backyard engineering I have drawn up a bunch of things on my cad programs, mostly mechanical. But Im still dumbfounded as to why artificial organs are not a bigger thing. I understand the artificial heart is basically on the market and just waiting for a rich industrialist to mass produce the things. But kidneys are essentialy filters are they not? I know some people have done some research into this but It just seems to me that it shouldn't be an issue to have chemical filtration sheets that act in the same way as the human kidney. Samething with livers(although the liver is a much more diverse machine so I can kind of understand that one) But lungs are really simple as well you really just need a membrane that blood can flow across and allow for diffusion of oxygen (maybe even from a portable container) If CO2 is the big problem then you could even look at a carbon scrubber and reprocess the O2

Two hypothesis come to mind immediately

the first being the problem of an autoimmune rejection. I don't consider Immunosuppressant's an answer here. But I could be wrong but I  think its completely possible to insert large foreign bodies into the human body without excessive buildup of scar tissue.

The second one being the big problem of microsurgery. From my understanding one of the reason nerve injury surgery is as primitive as it is because theyre are incredibly small blood vessels nerves muscle fibers and a lot of them that all have to be connected with an insane degree of precision to get anything functioning well.
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wrote...
Staff Member
8 years ago Edited: 8 years ago, duddy
I think a bigger issue with artificial organs is their inability to produce the enzymes normal organs can produce. You should know that the kidney is made up of millions of nephrons that not only "filter" the blood of electrolytes and other metabolic components, it also plays a role in balancing pH dynamically. In addition, most artificial organs would require a power source, since real organs are circuited with neurons and blood vessels that provide the organ with energy. That would be an issue, since batteries would need to be recharged or replaced - also, mixing electricity with bodily fluids isn't always ideal. On the contrary, artificial organs are used more often than you think - cochlear implants have been around for a while, same as artificial limbs. These are two reasons off the top of my head that suggests it's more than getting a rich 'industrialist' on board to market and produce this.
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jonatron5 Author
wrote...
8 years ago
well enzyme production  could be an issue. If I remeber properly, then  enzymes are a bunch of proteins that rna assembles. I vaguely Remember how they form and that does sound like a serious issue. But what if you took a laboratory setting(where I'm sure mass enzyme production is achievable) and have enzyme injections into the artificial kidneys. Also I'm aware that it's not like 2 or 3 enzymes it's like thousands of different ones and millions upon millions of each one. I'm not talking about total quality of life but it would beat being dead I would immagine.

As for power source that is an intresting question since battery packs are pretty much the only option because i immagine where about 100 years from creating our own biological machines from scratch.

Dang now that  you mention it batteries are reeeaaallly chemically nasty things. especially the industrial grade ones you'd want to power someting life supporting.  the absolute best I could think of would be a small internal one and a litteral backpack with wires for long term use.
wrote...
8 years ago
Enzyme production is extremely complex, and the amounts of enzymes in the body are controlled by equally complex hormone levels. Injections therefore would not work, with our current technology we can't  produce all the enzymes that would be needed.

I'm not saying we can't produce some organs (there is, for an example, an artificial heart currently in use), but others would be too complex to make.
http://www.mouthofthebeast.com/

A blog about biology and life in college.
wrote...
8 years ago
The organs that are easy to make are the ones that rarely fail - I'm thinking of the bladder) - and when I say easy, that's just a relative term. An implantable machine that performs the function of a thymus does not exist for the reasons mentioned above. Probably the best way to overcome this issue in the future would be to reproduce them from reprogrammed fibroblasts in a lab.
Biology - The only science where multiplication and division mean the same thing.
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