By Alison Satake – Mayo Clinic –
More than 4 million people worldwide have end-stage kidney disease that requires hemodialysis, a treatment in which a machine filters waste from the blood. Hemodialysis is a precursor to kidney transplant. To prepare for it, patients typically undergo surgery to connect an artery and a vein in the arm, creating an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) that allows blood to flow through the vein for treatment. However, AVF fails about 60 percent of the time due to vein narrowing. This is a major barrier to effective treatment.
Mayo Clinic researchers found that transplanting patients’ own stem cells from fat cells into the vein often helped prevent inflammation and vein narrowing. This could help millions of people with end-stage kidney disease tolerate dialysis longer, extending the time before they require a kidney transplant.
