Artificial Tissues and Organs - Interim Support Before Long-term Replacement

Introduction:

An artificial organ is a human-made device that is placed into a human body in replacement of a natural organ, interfacing with living tissue to duplicate a specific function so that humans can live long on the basis of that organ. It can be understood by an example- replacement of bone and joint, such as those found in hip replacement, could also be considered as an artificial organ; a pacemaker that controls the electrical events of the heart is also considered as an artificial organ. But people should not get confused between an artificial organ and an artificial device, for example- dialysis is a device that is used in kidney failure and supports the patients to retain their life, and it is an artificial device but not an organ.

What Is the Purpose of Artificial Tissues and Organs?

The use of artificial organs is first tested and implemented on animals to determine their success rate. There are many factors responsible for constructing and installing artificial organs; they are:

• Providing life support to prevent imminent death while awaiting a transplant.

• Improving the patient's quality of life through cosmetic restoration after cancer surgery or an accident.

• Dramatically improving the patient’s ability for self-care, for example, artificial limbs.

• Improving the patient’s ability to interact socially, for example, cochlear implant.

Some examples of artificial organs and tissues are:

1. Brain: A neural prosthesis is considered a substitute for motor, sensitive or cognitive functions that might have been damaged due to some injury or disease. Neurostimulators and deep brain stimulators send electrical impulses to the brain to treat movement and neurological disorders, including epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and urinary incontinence. These devices often serve to eliminate the symptoms by disrupting the output of malfunctioning nerve centers.

2. Eye: It is the most successful function in replacing artificial eyes implanted on the retina, optic nerve, or other related locations inside the brain. Its function is to recognize the levels of brightness, swatches of color, and basic geometric shapes, proving the potential of concepts.

3. Ear: In case when a person is deaf or severely hard of hearing in both ears, an implant called a cochlear implant is surgically implanted. Cochlear implants bypass most of the auditory system to facilitate a sense of sound through a microphone, and some other electronic devices are there used to place behind the ear. This is a type of implant that receives the signal and transfers it to the electrodes, which in turn activates the cochlear nerve.

4. Artificial Limbs: The artificial prosthesis of arms and legs is intended to restore form and function and facilitate them to walk again or continue the use of two hands in people who have gone through amputation or peg leg people. It is made up of new plastic and carbon fiber, limiting the amount of extra energy necessary to operate the limb. A prosthesis can roughly be categorized as upper and lower extremities and can take many shapes and sizes.

5. Lungs: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used to take a significant load of lung, tissue, and heart in which one or more catheters are placed into the patient, and a pump is used to flow blood over the hollow membrane fibers which exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the blood. Similar to ECMO, extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal has a similar setup but mainly benefits the patient through carbon dioxide removal. Rather than oxygenation to allow the lungs to relax and heal.

6. Liver: The artificial liver is used to restore form and function in the replacement of a normal liver or is only made possible by the fact that it uses cells of the real liver.

7. Kidney: An artificial kidney deals with the blood clot, which can both plug up the devices and would allow blood to filtrate continuously, which would help reduce kidney disease illness and increase the quality of life of patients.

8. Ovaries: Artificial ovaries are generally used with women; those oocytes are damaged and received early menopause due to chemotherapy in cancer patients, with self-assembled microtissues, and will be used for the purpose of in vitro maturation of immature oocytes.

9. Pancreas: An artificial pancreas is used in place of a healthy pancreas and works as a substitute for those who suffer from endocrine disturbances, especially in diabetic patients, and is used to improve insulin replacement therapy. It includes using an insulin pump under closed-loop control, developing a bio-artificial pancreas that is made through certain beta cells, bio-compatible sheets, and various gene therapy also involved in the manufacturing.

10. Bladder: The two ways to replace bladder function include either redirecting urine flow or replacing the bladder in situ. Standard methods for replacing the bladder involve constructing a bladder-like pouch from intestinal tissue using stem cells.

11. Red Blood Cells: Artificial RBCs (red blood cells) are made from purified human hemoglobin proteins that have been coated with a synthetic polymer that can capture oxygen when blood pH is low. Artificial RBCs are 100 % dependent on nanotechnology. A successful artificial RBC can perform all the functions that a human RBC does.

12. Testes: Men who have testicular abnormalities through birth defects or injury have been able to replace the damaged testicles using a testicular prosthesis. The prosthesis cannot restore biological reproductive function. However, it improves the mental health of such patients.

13. Thymus: When people become old, their thymus does not work well, so to restore its form and function through various foreign materials, an artificial thymus supports the body to fight infections and also grants the body to eliminate cancer cells. The artificial thymus plays an important role in the immune system by using blood stem cells to produce more T cells to fight infections and also gives the ability to eliminate cancer cells.

14. Trachea: An artificial trachea can get fully developed and integrates with the host while withstanding respiratory forces as well as the rotational and longitudinal movement the trachea undergoes.

Conclusion:

As discussed above, artificial tissue and organs are proven to improve lives and help those who are disabled in any way to live meaningful lives. It is helpful in many circumstances and makes a diseased person live long with the help of restoring the form and function of the organs. Nowadays, it has succeeded at a high rate, and people with organ failure can rely on artificial organs as the demand will increase in the coming days as the lifestyle of people at present is getting worse.