This book introduces the clinical application of artificial liver system (ALS) in hepatic failure. It has been widely used in clinics aiming to provide temporary support of liver function while maintaining extra-hepatic function in patients with liver failure. This work comprehensively summarizes the progress of livers and artificial liver, for example, the principle and implementation of Li-ALS, cell transplantation and the combined application of artificial liver and liver transplantation. It will be helpful for clinicians to implement artificial liver treatment to save the lives of patients with hepatic failure.

An important resource that puts the focus on the chemical engineering aspects of biomedical engineering In the past 50 years remarkable achievements have been advanced in the fields of biomedical and chemical engineering. With contributions from leading chemical engineers, Biomedical Engineering Challenges reviews the recent research and discovery that sits at the interface of engineering and biology. The authors explore the principles and practices that are applied to the ever-expanding array of such new areas as gene-therapy delivery, biosensor design, and the development of improved therapeutic compounds, imaging agents, and drug delivery vehicles. Filled with illustrative case studies, this important resource examines such important work as methods of growing human cells and tissues outside the body in order to repair or replace damaged tissues. In addition, the text covers a range of topics including the challenges faced with developing artificial lungs, kidneys, and livers; advances in 3D cell culture systems; and chemical reaction methodologies for biomedical imagining analysis. This vital resource: Covers interdisciplinary research at the interface between chemical engineering, biology, and chemistry Provides a series of valuable case studies describing current themes in biomedical engineering Explores chemical engineering principles such as mass transfer, bioreactor technologies as applied to problems such as cell culture, tissue engineering, and biomedical imaging Written from the point of view of chemical engineers, this authoritative guide offers a broad-ranging but concise overview of research at the interface of chemical engineering and biology.

Chronic liver failure is a frequent condition in clinical practice that encompasses all manifestations of patients with end-stage liver diseases. Chronic liver failure is a multiorgan syndrome that affects the liver, kidneys, brain, heart, lungs, adrenal glands, and vascular, coagulation, and immune systems. Chronic Liver Failure: Mechanisms and Management covers for the first time all aspects of chronic liver failure in a single book, from pathogenesis to current management. Each chapter is written by a worldwide known expert in their area and all provide the latest state-of-the-art knowledge. This volume is specifically designed to provide answers to clinical questions to all doctors dealing with patients with liver diseases, not only clinical gastroenterologists and hepatologists, but also to internists, nephrologists, intensive care physicians, and transplant surgeons.

Continuing progress has been made since the first edition of Artificial Liver Support was published. Liver transplantation has however become an estab lished therapy for a relatively small number of patients who remain patients for life. There therefore continues to be a great need for the development of other forms of artificial liver support. Improved intensive care utilizing improved plasma exchange, dialysis, sclerotherapy, and intracranial pressure monitoring have improved survival in fulminant hepatic failure. Progress has also been made in lipid membrane detoxification, in cell cultures, and in cell transplantation, and the isolation of various liver cell growth factors has led to deep insight into the mechanisms of liver regeneration. This book gives the clinician and the researcher detailed information about established new methods of clinic work and laboratory research, and describes new experimental approaches indicating the direction of future research. G. BRUNNER M. Mno Preface to the First Edition The regenerative capacity of the liver cell is almost unlimited. Therefore after acute liver damage, be it viral, toxic, hypoxic, or surgical in origin, restitutio ad integrum is the usual outcome. In two forms of liver disease, however, this is not the case: in fulminant hepatic failure, liver regeneration often is not fast enough to keep the organism alive; in end-stage cirrhosis, regeneration is disturbed by a hypertrophic architecture of fibrotic tissue. For these extreme forms of liver disease and for critical situations before and after liver surgery, artificial liver support is needed.

A comprehensive overview of the latest achievements, trends, and the current state of the art of this important and rapidly expanding field. Clearly and logically structured, the first part of the book explores the fundamentals of tissue engineering, providing a separate chapter on each of the basic topics, including biomaterials stem cells, biosensors and bioreactors. The second part then follows a more applied approach, discussing various applications of tissue engineering, such as the replacement or repairing of skins, cartilages, livers and blood vessels, to trachea, lungs and cardiac tissues, to musculoskeletal tissue engineering used for bones and ligaments as well as pancreas, kidney and neural tissue engineering for the brain. The book concludes with a look at future technological advances. An invaluable reading for entrants to the field in biomedical engineering as well as expert researchers and developers in industry.

This special volume "Tools and Applications of Biochemical Engineering Science" is dedicated to Professor Wolf-Dieter Deckwer on the occasion of his 60th bir- day. It was a great pleasure for me to act together with Professor Karl Schtigerl as volume editor and to present here a collection of 11 outstanding review articles written mainly by former students, associates, colleagues and friends of Wolf- Dieter Deckwer. The title of this special volume well reflects the research interests and sci- tific pursuit of Wolf-Dieter Deckwer during his more than 20 years’ work in the area of biochemical engineering, particularly during the last 15 years when he was the head of the Biochemical Engineering Division of GBF (German Nat- nal Research Center for Biotechnology). He has decisively pushed the devel- ment not only of "software tools" ranging from analytical means and mathe- tical models for monitoring and understanding cellular processes to gene expression systems for designing microorganisms, but also of "hardware tools" such as computer control systems, bioreaction and separation devices for eff- tively producing a variety of bioproducts on semi-production scale. New developments in some of these important tools in biochemical engineering are reviewed in articles included in this volume. Wolf-Dieter Deckwer was among the leading biochemical engineers who timely pointed out the necessity of applying these tools in an integrated manner for bioprocess development. By establishing "Integrated Bioprocess Development" as one of the GBF main - search topics as early as 1990 he also actively promoted this idea.