Can a damaged kidney regenerate? (ie like a liver does)?
Question:
thanks...
Answers:
Regeneration is the ability of cells, tissues, and even organs in some cases, to grow and then replace in their entirety the cells, tissues, and organs. The more highly evolved the species, the lesser their capability to regenerate things that have been lost. For example, amphibians such as lizards can regenerate their tails, and starfish can regenerate their arms. These limbs can be lost completely, and a fully functioning replacement will eventually take its place as time goes on until the animal looks like new.
In mammals, the ability to regenerate is severely curtailed, and it doesn't happen very often. Humans can regenerate their livers. The regeneration in these instances is really a refined process of compensatory growth rather than true regeneration of the organ, but it works
In fact, the speed of liver regeneration after injury is quite astounding. If you have to resect [excise all or part of] a liver, for example, after a car accident where it's really mashed, you'll take out all of the damaged liver, stop the bleeding, sew things together, and you may have only 20 percent of the liver left. When that liver begins to regenerate, it will grow so fast that it will exceed the growth rate of any malignancy known to man. It will refill the space it previously occupied. It will definitely look abnormal, but it will be roughly the size and shape of the liver it was before.
The liver is actually the biggest gland in the body. Unlike malignancies, a liver that regenerates knows when to stop. It will not metastasize, will not spread anywhere else in the body, and it will not invade.
Along with the liver; the hematopoietic system, the organs and tissues involved in blood production, the epithelium of the skin, and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract can maintain a state of constant renewal as long as they have enough stem cells. They have niches very near the organ, so that their stem cells can, for example in the case of the skin, go up and replace lost tissue. Eventually our whole body is replaced in this way. You don't stay the exact same person, because all of your bodily material gets renewed
An early study based on the theory that protein feeding led to increased GFR involved more than 200 patients with various forms of chronic renal failure.. One group was treated with a normal high-protein diet and another with an all-pasta diet for two years. The rate of progression of renal insufficiency in the pasta group was significantly decreased when compared to those eating a high-protein diet.
Stem cells from bone marrow can be used to regenerate damaged kidney cells.
At stage 1, CKD ( chronic kidney disease) with normal or increased GFR > 90
At stage 2,- KD with mild decrease in GFR 60- 89
At Stage 3- KD - Mod decrease in GFR 30- 59
AT Stage 4 Severe decrease in GFR 15-29- might consider kidney replacement
At stage 5- Kidney failure with GFR < 15 requires kidney transplant if uremia is present.
If it's any consolation, your mom whose GFR is at 47 is considered with chronic kidney disease with a moderate decrease in GFR.
No! However, you can live with only one kidney.
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