Scientific Resources

Renal cell therapy has shown clinical efficacy in the treatment of acute renal failure (ARF) and promise for treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) by supplementing conventional small solute clearance (hemodialysis or hemofiltration) with endocrine and metabolic function provided by cells maintained in an extracorporeal circuit. A major obstacle in the widespread adoption of this therapeutic approach is the lack of a cryopreservable system to enable distribution,storage,and therapeutic use at point of care facilities. This report details the design,fabrication,and assessment of a Bioartificial Renal Epithelial Cell System (BRECS),the first all-in-one culture vessel,cryostorage device,and cell therapy delivery system. The BRECS was loaded with up to 20 cell-seeded porous disks,which were maintained by perfusion culture. Once cells reached over 5 A- 10(6) cells/disk for a total therapeutic dose of approximately 10(8) cells,the BRECS was cryopreserved for storage at -80°C or -140°C. The BRECS was rapidly thawed,and perfusion culture was resumed. Near precryopreservation values of cell viability,metabolic activity,and differentiated phenotype of functional renal cells were confirmed post-reconstitution. This technology could be extended to administer other cell-based therapies where metabolic,regulatory,or secretion functions can be leveraged in an immunoisolated extracorporeal circuit. View Publication

Acute and chronic solid organ failures are costly disease processes with high mortality rates. Inflammation plays a central role in both acute and chronic organ failure,including heart,lung and kidney. In this regard,new therapies for these disorders have focused on inhibiting the mediators of inflammation,including cytokines and free radicals,with little or no success in clinical studies. Recent novel treatment strategies have been directed to cell-based rather than mediator-based approaches,designed to immunomodulate the deleterious effects of inflammation on organ function. One approach,cell therapy,replaces cells that were damaged in the acute or chronic disease process with stem/progenitor technology,to rebalance excessive inflammatory states. As an example of this approach,the use of an immunomodulatory role of renal epithelial progenitor cells to treat acute renal failure (ARF) and multiorgan failure arising from acute kidney injury is reviewed. A second therapeutic pathway,cell processing,does not incorporate stem/progenitor cells in the device,but rather biomimetic materials that remove and modulate the primary cellular components,which promote the worsening organ tissue injury associated with inflammation. The use of an immunomodulating leukocyte selective cytopheretic inhibitory device is also reviewed as an example of this cell processing approach. Both of these unconventional strategies have shown early clinical efficacy in pilot clinical trials and may transform the therapeutic approach to organ failure disorders. View Publication