All You Need to Know About Nephritis

To understand kidney problems such as nephritis, it's helpful to start with some background on what the kidneys are, and what they do.

The kidneys are two bean-shaped, fist-sized organs found just under the ribs on the left and right sides of the spine. They remove impurities and extra water from the blood, filtering 120-150 quarts of blood a day, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Each kidney consists of thousands of structures called nephrons, where the actual blood filtering takes place. In the nephron, a two-step cleaning process separates what the body needs to keep from what it can get rid of.

A filter called the glomerulus catches blood cells and protein, sending water and waste to a second filter, called a tubule. The tubule captures minerals. After that, what remains leaves the body as urine.

Read more: All You Need to Know About Nephritis

Nephritis can lead to kidney failure if not treated. There are various ways of preventing kidney damage
if someone has symptoms of nephritis. Monitoring blood pressure is important if kidney problems
develop.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Scientists are growing billions of blood cells in the lab

From helping humans live longer and hacking our performance, to repairing the body and understanding the brain, WIRED Health will hear from the innovators transforming this critical sector. Read all of our WIRED Health coverage here.

Jo Mountford is making billions of red blood cells in a laboratory in Glasgow. And now she wants to scale-up production. Big time.

Mountford, from the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, started trying to create blood in the lab in 2007 and is now able to create it on demand.

In 2008, her team produced 100,000 red blood cells; by 2014 output had reached ten billion cells for the year. The ten billion cells were stored in 88 flasks and made up 8.8 litres of blood.

The team – funded by the Wellcome Trust and incorporating universities and organisations from around the UK – is now able to produce the cells in 30-31 days. "We can choose what blood group we make," Mountford told the audience at WIRED Health.

Read more: Scientists are growing billions of blood cells in the lab

The NHS Blood and Transplant facility in Bristol, where donated blood is screened. A British team
called Novosang wants to render this process obsolete

Source: Greg White