Liquid membrane capsules for treatment of uremia

The objective of the program is to use ingested liquid membrane capsules (LMC) as gastrointestinal toxin traps as an adjunct to dialysis. Urea has been selected as the model toxic component to study before expanding the technology to other toxins. Transport across the small intestinal mucosa has been indicated to be adequate. There is no indication of reduction of mucosal transport or damage to the intestinal mucosa over short term but repetitive LMC perfusions. Performance of LMC perfused through Thiry Vella small intestinal loops is as good as in vitro performance and can be predicted. Substantial progress has been made toward developing LMC to perform in the more complex environment of the intact gastrointestinal tract. The demonstration of LMC performance in vivo with intact gastrointestinal tracts, and perhaps some increase in rate of toxin removal, will be required before LMC can be considered practical candidates for clinical use.