Development of new artificial kidney systems

Abstract

By the mediation of Dr. Carl W. Walter, who introduced one of his brain children, a thermoswitch, to Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) in the 1950s for the spinning of synthetic fibers such as polyamide, the Harvard-Toray joint research project on two subjects was started in 1974. One of them concerned an ocular insert for the slow release of antibiotics into the conjunctival sac to cure trachoma. The other was the development of a new artificial kidney system in collaboration with the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Harvard Medical School. I was dispatched to Boston at that time, and that transfer was the beginning of a new era of cooperation between Harvard and Toray through the intermediacy of Dr. Walter. The year 1974 was the 50th anniversary of the first case of human hemodialysis conducted by Dr. G. Haas in Germany, and almost the ‘25 year anniversary of the first clinical trial with the Kolff-Brigham artificial kidney at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital [I ,2]. The Kolff-Brigham kidney, actually a rotating kidney machine, was constructed by Dr. Walter based on the blueprint lent by Dr. W. J. Kolff, the father of hemodialysis therapy who was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the United States after World War II. Dr. Walter was present at the first hemodialysis trial with this kidney in 1948 together with the late Dr. J. P. Merrill, who was the physician-in-charge. Based on such a long historic background, our program for the development of a new artificial kidney was thus launched under the guidance of Drs. Walter and Merrill. The purpose of the program was to develop an improved artificial kidney system of the second generation for “feel better” treatment and improved rehabilitation utilizing a new, noncellulosic hollow fiber membrane made from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) devised by Toray [3]. At first, more versatile and better-controlled removal of fluid and middle molecules than the conventional method