Kidney
Like healthy kidneys, dialysis machines filter out unneeded
urea as well as useful sugars, salts, and water. But unlike
the real thing, the machines don't recycle the useful
materials into the blood. Nephrologist David Humes of the
University of Michigan is developing a bioartificial kidney
that routes those beneficial elements through tubes lined with
kidney cells, which reabsorb the good stuff and send it back
through the tubes' porous walls into the blood. Tested so far
only on dogs, Humes' device may enter human trials soon.
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