title: Artificial organs as a bridge to transplantation.
abstract: Current organ shortage is estimated to keep outpacing demand for years to come. Among the advocated strategies, artificial and bioartificial devices may prove beneficial to a wide category of patients on transplant waiting lists. Bionic organ science allows to reproduce organ architecture and function through a complex interplay of cellular and mechanical elements. Some bioartificial organs may well be used to replace anatomical defects, while others allow to compensate for failing organ functions and to bridge patients to transplantation. Among these latter, bioartificial liver (BAL) systems bear the highest potential for clinical application, even if their use is raising several controversial issues. These latter regard the identification and stratification of patients fit for transplantation, timing and type of transplantation after recovery, appropriateness of double-blind, randomized clinical trials and safety of animal and/or human cell lines. Nonetheless, bionic organ science needs to be regarded as a useful adjunct in the armamentarium of organ replacement therapies for the third millennium.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Chirurgiche, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy. famulari@cc.univaq.it
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Famulari
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Simone
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Verzaro
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Iaria
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Polisetti
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rascente
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aureli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001187:Artificial Organs; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D019164:Liver, Artificial; D016377:Organ Transplantation; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution; D016896:Treatment Outcome