The future of organ replacement: needs, potential applications, and obstacles to application.
The supply of organs available for transplantation is already far smaller than the demand, and the demand may grow substantially in the near future. For this reason, it is timely to consider how organ function might be replaced in the future. In this article, we consider new technologies that might be used to replace organ function, the obstacles to applying new technologies, and how those obstacles might be overcome in the development of new strategies for organ replacement.
Cascalho
M
M
Transplantation Biology Program and the Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
Platt
J L
JL
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000639:trends*; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000639:trends*; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous / Q000639:trends