Artificial organ a stationary power supply or other stationary resources such as filters or chemical processing units. (Periodic rapid recharging of batteries, refilling of chemicals, and/or cleaning/replacing of filters would exclude a device from being called an artificial organ.) Thus, a dialysis machine, while a very successful and critically important life support device that almost completely replaces the duties of a kidney, is not an artificial organ. Constructing and installing artificial organs, an extremely research-intensive and expensive process initially, may entail many years of ongoing maintenance services not needed by a natural organ.: The use of any artificial organ by humans is
Wallerian degeneration of armadillo/HEAT motifs, two sterile alpha motifs responsible for multimerization, and a C Terminus Toll/Interleukin-1 receptor that, unlike all other known TIR domains, possesses enzymatic activity. Activation of SARM1 is sufficient to collapse NAD+ levels and initiate the Wallerian degeneration pathway. The activity of SARM1 helps to explain the protective nature of the survival factor NMNAT2, as NMNAT enzymes have been shown to prevent SARM1 mediated depletion of NAD+. This relationship is further supported by the fact that mice lacking NMNAT2, which are normally not viable, are completely rescued by SARM1 deletion, placing NMNAT2 activity upstream of SARM1. Other pro-degeneration