The Characterization of Hemodialysis Membranes in Miniaturized Dialyzers
Abstract
Lack of an appropriate animal model prevents rapid evaluation of health outcomes associated with hemodialysis. We developed a miniaturized dialyzer for use in small rats. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the miniaturized dialyzers can differentiate performance characteristics representing hemodialysis membrane and fiber design. We evaluated internal filtration, water permeability, sieving coefficient (SC) and clearance of solutes, in the Medium Cut Off (MCO) and conventional High Flux (HF) miniaturized dialyzers. We found statistically significant differences between miniaturized MCO and conventional HF dialyzers with respect to ultrafiltration coefficient, clearance of Beta-2 Microglobulin (B2M), and SC of B2M.These outcomes suggest that the miniaturized dialyzers can effectively differentiate performance characteristics representing hemodialysis membrane and fiber design. This indicates that the miniaturized dialyzers are an appropriate component of a pre- clinical pipeline of dialysis technology impact.