Recent innovations in renal replacement technology and potential applications to transplantation and dialysis patients: a review of current methods

The current standard of care for patients with end-stage renal disease (ERSD) is a kidney transplant or dialysis when a donor organ is not available. The growing gap between patients who require a kidney transplant and the availability of donor organs as well as the negative effects of long-term dialysis, such as infection, limited mobility, and risk of cancer development, drive the impetus to develop alternative renal replacement technology. The goal of this review is to assess the potential of two of the most recent innovations in kidney transplant technology—the implantable bioartificial kidney (BAK) and kidney regeneration technology—in addressing the aforementioned problems related to kidney replacement for patients with ERSD. Both innovations are fully implantable, autologous, personalized with patient cells, and can replace all aspects of kidney function. Not only do these new innovations have the potential to improve the possibility of transplantation for more patients, they also have potential to improve the outcome of transplantation or dialysis-related renal cancer diagnosis. A major limitation of the current technology is that both implantable BAK and kidney regeneration technology are still in preclinical stages, and thus their potential effects cannot be comprehensively generalized to human patients.