The next step from high-flux dialysis: application of sorbent technology.

The current foci of renal replacement therapy with dialysis are middle molecular weight toxins, consisting of small proteins, polypeptides and products of glycosylation and lipoxygenation. Conventional high-flux dialysis is not efficient at removing these molecules, explaining the increased interest in using sorbents to supplement dialysis techniques. Prototype biocompatible sorbents have been developed and investigated for middle molecule removal; these have been shown, in man, to remove beta(2)-microglobulin, angiogenin, leptin, cytokines and other molecules, without reducing platelets and leukocytes.

Polymeric adsorbent for removing toxic proteins from blood of patients with kidney failure.

A hypercrosslinked styrenic polymer with an enhanced proportion of mesopores in the range 2-20 nm has been developed. The principle of the synthesis consists of the suspension polymerization of divinylbenzene (or copolymerization of styrene with divinylbenzene) in the presence of a porogen that is a theta-solvent for polystyrene. On the scale of thermodynamic affinity, theta-solvents occupy a border position between good solvents and precipitating media for the growing polymer chains.