Basic study ot the implantable artificial kidney

2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24650251
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Biomedical engineering/Biological material science
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: ABE Yusuke 東京大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (90193010)
• Research Collaborator: HARA Shintaro 東京大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 大学院生 ; YURIMOTO Terumi 東京大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 大学院生
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
• Keywords: 体内埋込式人工腎臓 / サイクロン型血液連続遠心分離法

Research Abstract

Hemodialysis has been already an established therapy to rescue patients with severe renal failure. However, it restricts time of patients and increases medical expenses. Development of the artificial kidney for completely embedding in the body is expected to break through the present status. In this study, a continuous blood hydrocyclone centrifugal separation method for the development of an implantable artificial kidney was proposed. We developed three types of hydrocyclones to investigate concentration of blood. As a result, despite that no significant difference was seen in concentration of red blood cell (RBC), a red pillar was observed in the center of the hydrocyclone. This pillar was suggested that the RBC was accumulated by the secondary vortex in the hydrocyclone. Further study to observe with a particle image velocimetry and the high speed video camera is necessary to demonstrate a possibility of concentration in the RBC.