SCIENCE

What is mitochondria transplantation and how it might be useful in the future

Trying to have more and more organs available for transplantation is one of the challenges of the future. This is why alternative ways are being found, such as the transplantation of mitochondria.

Classified as regenerative medicine, mitochondria transplantation is the focus of recent research conducted by the University of Turin and Wake Forest University in Winston Salem and published in 'Annals of Surgery', which applied it to damaged kidney cells.

The research seems to have produced encouraging results, showing that mitochondria transplantation, in this case, would be useful in increasing cellular energy and limiting the stress of the damage.

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The transplantation of mitochondria
Trying to have more and more organs available for transplantation is one of the challenges of the future. This is why alternative ways are being found, such as the transplantation of mitochondria. Classified as regenerative medicine, mitochondria transplantation is the focus of recent research conducted by the University of Turin and Wake Forest University in Winston Salem and published in 'Annals of Surgery', which applied it to damaged kidney cells. The research seems to have produced encouraging results, showing that mitochondria transplantation, in this case, would be useful in increasing cellular energy and limiting the stress of the damage.
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The research
Based on the first encouraging data collected by the University of Turin, Wake Forest then took it a step further by demonstrating that if a kidney compatible with the human kidney is damaged, the direct initiation of mitochondria within the artery allows the damage suffered to be repaired and triggers signals of functional recovery.
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Why mitochondria would be critical
Why would the focus be on mitochondria? Because these are the energy source of cells and it is now virtually proven that all diseases are linked to mitochondrial damage.
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Research that has a precursor
The use of mitochondria transplantation to restore the health of a damaged organ is nothing new these days. The first to experiment with this was Professor James McCully, who had already demonstrated how the administration of mitochondria could be functional in this regard. There is still a long way to go, but the path seems to be mapped out.
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The high demand for organs
For short-term use, there is speculation that mitochondria transplantation could be very useful for solid organ transplantation. To understand how much need there is for transplant organs, one only has to think that in the United States, in 2022, some 43,000 transplants were performed against a waiting list of 120,000 patients.
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