Modelling of a hollow fibre bioartificial liver and pancreas.

Abstract

In the last two decades, significant advances in the development of bioartificial organs have been achieved. In particular the hollow fibre bioreactor has demonstrated enormous potential as a possible bioartificial organ. Although considerable study has been conducted, the field of process modelling, particularly in the case of the bioartificial liver, has generally been neglected. A one-dimensional model was therefore developed to predict the performance of the hollow fibre bioartificial pancreas and liver. The impact of bovine serum albumin polarisation in the fibre's extra capillary space on device performance was evaluated. The simulations conducted for the bioartificial pancreas showed that protein polarisation can significantly reduce device performance when the system relies on convective mass transport across the membrane. In the case of the bioartificial liver, protein polarisation resulted in an apparent reduction of ammonia and n-caproic acid consumption. Most of the performance increase observed for a system where no protein was present is due to species accumulation in the extra capillary space. The convective flux of ammonia and n-caproic acid across the membrane particularly improved device performance during start-up conditions.