With the increasing number of patients suffering from damaged or diseased organs and the shortage of organ donors, the need for methods to construct human tissues outside the body has arisen. Tissue engineering is a newly emerging biomedical technology and methodology which combines the disciplines of both the materials and life sciences to replace a diseased or damaged tissue or organ with a l...

Since the beginning of organ/tissue transplantation, the therapeutic modality of choice in end-stage organ failure, organ shortage has been the main problem in transplantation medicine. Given the so far unsolved obstacle, all hope-raising procedures to possibly tackle this long-lasting problem can draw attentions. In this context, "regenerative medicine" sounds to be more promising compared to ...

A 34-yr-old female was diagnosed as being brain dead. Preoperative ultrasound revealed no abnormal focal lesions. However, the horseshoe kidney was identified during organ harvest. En bloc nephrectomy was performed. The kidney was divided at the midline of isthmus. The divided right kidney was discarded due to numerous arteries and veins. The divided left kidney was transplanted. After declampi...

In the past 50 years, organ transplantation has developed from an improbable laboratory exercise to a major therapeutic success. The surgical problems of organ grafting have, for the most part, been solved. Rejection of grafts is now partially understood and usually controllable by powerful immunosuppressive drugs. A steady improvement in patient outcome, especially following the introduction o...

L EFLUNOMIDE (LEF), which suppresses both T and B cells, prolongs survival of heart xenografts in the concordant hamster to rat animal model. l However, xenotransplantation across discordant barriers is the most likely approach to solve the problem of organ shortage. By perfusing guinea pig livers with University of Wisconsin solution containing sodium nitroprusside, we have solved the problem ...

BACKGROUND Critical organ shortage results in the utilization of extended donor criteria (EDC) liver grafts. These marginal liver grafts are prone to increased ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) which may contribute to deteriorated graft function and survival. Experimental data have shown that the calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus exerts protective effects on hepatic IRI when applied intravenousl...

L ung transplantation is an acceptable therapy with which to palliate patients with a variety of endstage lung diseases, but there is a severe shortage of suitable donor lungs to meet the demand (Fig 1), which hinders broad application. In the last 5 years, approximately 2,500 potential lung recipients have died while on the UNOS lung transplant waiting list.1 Because of the shortage of lungs f...

The success of solid organ transplantation in the treatment of end-stage organ failure has fuelled a growing demand for transplantable organs worldwide that has far outstripped the supply from brain dead heart-beating donors. In Singapore, this has resulted in long waiting lists of patients for transplantable organs, especially kidneys. The Human Organ Transplant Act, introduced in 1987, is an ...

POLICY POINTS The growing shortage of life-saving organs has reached unprecedented levels, with more than 120,000 Americans waiting for them. Despite national attempts to increase organ donation and federal laws mandating the equitable allocation of organs, geographic disparities remain. A better understanding of the contextual determinants of organ donor designation, including social capital, ...