User:RCastellanos/sandbox

Copied from Artificial organ

My Notes on MICROCHIPS***

Organ chips are devices containing hollow microvessels filled with cells simulating tissue and/or organs as a microfluidic system that can provide key chemical and electrical signal information. Organ chips are also known as, "organ-on-a-chip," OoCs, or "microphysio-logical" systems, MPS. This information can create various applications such as creating "human in vitro models" for both healthy and diseased organs, drug advancements in toxicity screening as well as replacing animal testing. Using 3D cell culture techniques enables scientists to recreate the complex extracellular matrix, ECM, found in in vivo to mimic human response to drugs and human diseases. Organs on chips are used to reduce the failure rate in new drug development; microengineering these allows for a microenvironment to be modeled as an organ. A liver-on-a-chip has been tested by Philip Morris Products SA in Switzerland to replicate the liver which is imperative for metabolizing drugs. It was determined that the 3D organ-on-a-chip devices can detect signs of cytotoxicity in low drug concentrations; therefore, enabling a better prediction for a safety margin in early drug developments.

Microchips
Scientists are developing palm-sized mock human organs, designed to test drugs and help understand the basic function of healthy or diseased organs. Researchers are hopeful this technology may speed up drug development and make it less expensive.

Trachea
Surgeons in Sweden performed the first implantation of a synthetic trachea in July 2011, for a 36-year-old patient who was suffering from cancer. Stem cells taken from the patient's hip were treated with growth factors and incubated on a plastic replica of his natural trachea. In another study of seven patients ranging in ages 14-48 years old, each had an artificial trachea implanted, made of memory alloy mesh; each healed without complications. Other cases have been documented where artificial tracheas are treated with bone marrow stem cells to simulate organic tissue.

An artificial organ is an engineered device or tissue that is implanted or integrated into a human — interfacing with living tissue — to replace a natural organ, to duplicate or augment a specific function or functions so the patient may return to a normal life as soon as possible. The replaced function does not have to be related to life support, but it often is. For example, replacement bones and joints, such as those found in hip replacements, could also be considered artificial organs.

Implied by definition, is that the device must not be continuously tethered to a stationary power supply or other stationary resources such as filters or chemical processing units. (Periodic rapid recharging of batteries, refilling of chemicals, and/or cleaning/replacing of filters would exclude a device from being called an artificial organ.) Thus, a dialysis machine, while a very successful and critically important life support device that almost completely replaces the duties of a kidney, is not an artificial organ.