News by Subject Medicine & Health

In a population-based Swedish database, researchers studied the clinical outcomes of starting renin-angiotensin system inhibitor (RASi) or calcium channel blockers (CCB) in 2,458 patients with CKD G4-5. Compared with CCB, RASi initiation was associated with a lower risk of KRT, but similar risks of mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events. These findings suggest that RASi initiation might slow the progression of kidney disease compared with CCB in patients with advanced CKD, and offer similar cardiovascular protection.

In a paper published in TECHNOLOGY, a team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have demonstrated 24-hour rat liver viability in a normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) system. Rat liver perfusion is an efficient and cost-effective method to study how various pharmacologic agents impact liver parenchyma.

The method currently used to produce stem cell-derived tissues has a very limited throughput. By semi-automating tissue differentiation, researchers from MIPT and Harvard have made the process nearly four times faster, without compromising on quality.The new algorithm is also useful for analyzing the factors that affect cell specialization.

Bioengineers at EPFL have used organoids - tiny lab-grown organs - to mimic the early development of the heart in the mouse embryo. The work is another step towards future bioartificial organs for research and transplants.

A team of Duke researchers has developed a lab-grown living lung model that mimics the tiny air sacs of the lungs where coronavirus infection and serious lung damage take place. This advance has enabled Duke and UNC virologists to watch the battle between the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and lung cells at the finest molecular scale. In experiments so far, the mini lungs respond just like the real thing.