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
Transneuronal degeneration monkeys to determine if this degeneration would lead to loss of neurons. It was the first experiment done on adult animals to show evidence of loss of neurons after one year, a long survival period for those affected cells. The degeneration led to cell shrinkage and cell death, and these symptoms were more profound after one year than during the first four months. Another study being done is on rats in which the olfactory bulb is removed has resulted in neurons in the primary olfactory cortex becoming argyrophilic in silver infused preparations. This allows the researchers to view the cells