Membrane processes today play a signifi cant role in the replacement therapy for acute and chronic organ failure diseases. Current extracorporeal blood purifi cation and oxygenation devices employ membranes acting as selective barriers for the removal of endogeneous and exogeneous toxins and for gas exchange, respectively. Additionally, membrane technology offers new interesting opportunities for the design of bioartificial livers, pancreas, kidneys, lungs etc.

This book reviews the latest developments in membrane systems for bioartificial organs and regenerative medicine, investigates how membrane technology can improve the quality and efficiency of biomedical devices, and highlights the design procedures for membrane materials covering the preparation, characterization, and sterilization steps as well as transport phenomena. The different strategies pursued for the development of membrane bioartifi cial organs, including crucial issues related to blood/cell-membrane interactions are described with the aim of opening new and exciting frontiers in the coming decades.

The book is a valuable tool for tissue engineers, clinicians, biomaterials scientists, membranologists as well as biologists and biotechnologists. It is also a source of reference for students, academic and industrial researchers in the topic of biotechnology, biomedical engineering, materials science and medicine.

Auteur

Loredana De Bartolo, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy; Efrem Curcio, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy; Enrico Drioli, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy.

Contenu

Natural and Synthetic Membranes Biomedical Polymers Preparation Techniques Membrane Configurations Characterization of Membrane Properties Sterilization Procedures 2. Basic Issues in Membrane Separation for Biomedical Devices Driving Forces in Molecular Separation Transport through Microporous Membranes Transport through Dense Membranes Performance Parameters 3. Membrane Artificial Organs Bioengineering Principles Hemodialyser Hemofilters Plasmafilters Blood Oxygenator 4. Biocompatibility Assessment Membrane Trombogenicity Complement Activation Activation of Leukocytes Inflammation Reaction Bioincompatibility Aspects 5. Engineering of Membrane Biohybrid Organs Modelling of Mass Transfer Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis Analysis of Metabolic Kinetics Configuration of Membrane Devices 6. Membrane Biohybrid Organs Design Concepts Liver Pancreas Kidney Lung Cardio-vascular devices 7. Citocompatibility Assessment Cell Response Protein Adsorption Cell-Membrane Interactions Role of Membrane Properties on Cell Arrangement and Organization Evaluation of Tissue Compatibility 8. Regulatory and Ethical Issues Regulatory of Biomedical Membrane Devices Ethical Issues