Transport and reaction phenomena in multilayer membranes functioning as bioartificial kidney devices

Classic hemodialysis only provides a limited removal of protein bound uremic toxins (PBUT) in patients with chronic kidney disease. A bioartificial kidney device, BAK, composed of a living cell monolayer of conditionally immortalized proximal tubule epithelial kidney cells (ciPTEC) cultured of hollow fiber polymeric membrane can remove protein bound uremic toxins from the blood in combination with classic hemodialysis. The development and clinical implementation of the BAK requires lots of optimization. This investigation is expensive and time consuming therefore modeling studies could help to optimize experiments and improve its design.