Mitochondrial Transplantation as a Treatment for Kidney Damage

It is interesting see an increased focus on assessing the ability of mitochondrial transplantation to be useful in a variety of circumstances, not just as a treatment to reduce the mitochondrial dysfunction that occurs with aging. The limiting factor in bringing mitochondrial transplantation to the clinic is chiefly the speed at which the research and development communities can achieve the logistical advances needed to reliably produce enough mitochondria to deliver to an entire organ (at first), and the whole body (later). It is likely the case that mitochondria will have to be patient-matched by haplotype of mitochondrial DNA, which further multiplies the size of the necessary infrastructure. Several biotech startups are working on this challenge, and the research community anticipates that present small tests will point the way to later clinical trials, once it is possible to manufacture sufficient mitochondria in a cost-effective way. Today's research materials provide an example of one such small test of mitochondrial transplantation, focused on the treatment of kidney damage in the context of disease and transplantation. It is possible that mitochondrial transplantation can be used to greatly improve the quality of donor organs, reducing the cell death and damage resulting from the stresses of the transplantation process. Though not the focus of the research here, good results in this context also suggest that mitochondrial transplantation would be useful as a t...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs