Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Medical Biophysics

Supervisor

McIntyre, Christopher

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.

Summary for Lay Audience

Hemodialysis is the most common therapy provided to patients suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD). Hemodialysis relies on the use of dialyzers (artificial kidneys), in which blood is filtered from waste products using clean dialysis fluid. However, the dialyzers used do not entirely fulfill the functionality of a healthy kidney. This is partly due to the membranes used in the dialyzers. The lack of an appropriate animal model prevents rapid evaluation of health issues associated with hemodialysis. Accordingly, we constructed a miniaturized dialyzer suitable for small rats using membranes harvested from existing clinical human dialyzers. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the dialyzers can effectively differentiate performance characteristics representing hemodialysis membrane and fiber design. We evaluated water permeability, internal filtration, and uremic toxin removal of the miniaturized dialyzers composed of harvested membranes from MCO and conventional HF human dialyzers. The results showed statistically significant differences between MCO and conventional HF miniaturized dialyzers with respect to the ultrafiltration coefficient, clearance of B2M, and the sieving coefficient of B2M. The main findings suggest that miniaturized dialyzers can effectively differentiate performance characteristics representing hemodialysis membrane and fiber design.

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