from the I-prefer-to-store-my-blood-internally dept.
Researchers from Japan's National Defense Medical College report they have developed an artificial blood substitute that shows comparable efficacy to normal blood in saving exsanguinated rabbits.
When the artificial blood was tested on 10 rabbits suffering from serious blood loss, six of them survived, a ratio comparable to that among rabbits treated with real blood, according to the team.
No negative side effects, such as blood clotting, were reported, the researchers said.
The blood substitute was developed by combining "previously developed substitutes for red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets (PLTs) for transfusion", it can also be stored for over a year un-refrigerated (whole blood can only be stored for about 20 days, and platelets only 4 days.) The artificial blood does not suffer from blood-type rejection issues allowing earlier interventions and
injured patients can be treated before they arrive at hospitals, resulting in a higher survival rate, the team said.
Imagine a future in which seeing "The Red Cross" pop up on their phones doesn't make people instinctively attempt to cover and protect their inner arms.
Journal Reference
U.S. journal Transfusion (https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.15427)(paywalled).
Related Stories
Phys.org reports on researchers creating synthetic Rebuilt Red Blood Cells (RRBCs) that not only match the normal characteristics of natural RBCs, but add new capabilities as well.
most artificial red blood cells have had one or a few, but not all, key features of the natural versions. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have made synthetic red blood cells that have all of the cells' natural abilities, plus a few new ones.
The newly created RRBCs have the usual characteristics of RBCs and
take up oxygen from the lungs and deliver it to the body's tissues. These disk-shaped cells contain millions of molecules of hemoglobin—an iron-containing protein that binds oxygen. RBCs are highly flexible, which allows them to squeeze through tiny capillaries and then bounce back to their former shape. The cells also contain proteins on their surface that allow them to circulate through blood vessels for a long time without being gobbled up by immune cells.
But they also have some new tricks natural cells do not, the researchers
developed modular procedures with which to load functional cargos such as hemoglobin, drugs, magnetic nanoparticles, and ATP biosensors within the RRBC interior to enable various functions, including oxygen delivery, therapeutic drug delivery, magnetic manipulation, and toxin biosensing and detection.
The RRBCs were created by
first coating donated human RBCs with a thin layer of silica. They layered positively and negatively charged polymers over the silica-RBCs, and then etched away the silica, producing flexible replicas. Finally, the team coated the surface of the replicas with natural RBC membranes.
Future studies are already planned.
Related
Artificial Blood Storable for a Year Shows Efficacy in Rabbits
Breakthrough (Mostly) Converts All Blood Types to Type O
Journal Reference:
Biomimetic Rebuilding of Multifunctional Red Blood Cells: Modular Design Using Functional Components, ACS Nano (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b08714)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday October 03 2019, @09:26PM (1 child)
Japanese scientists invent "Tru Blood", you say?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Blood [wikipedia.org]
Now the only thing that was any good about that series was the leading woman was hot, but still...
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday October 03 2019, @11:31PM
I remember withdrawing off The Masquerade – Bloodlines reading the novels and, from the weekend+ binging I can barely remember, the first couple of novels were decent enough. Problem was they dragged on (as most successful series do) and the romantic twist and turns just couldn't keep up with the (similarly degrading) plot.
From the little I recall from the few episodes I watched, the TV adaptation broke off from the original plot line in a failed attempt to salvage it.
Anyhow, there's a Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on the way but I haven't gamed in years... Maybe I'll catch the novel adaptation or something :D
compiling...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Thursday October 03 2019, @10:02PM (3 children)
While it wasn't blood clotting, I am sure that 4 in 10 rabbits would not agree with the no negative side effects. (Or they would, if they were still around to disagree.)
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03 2019, @10:10PM (1 child)
Wait for the human tests... guess which underprivileged race will be over-represented in the test groups. It's one way of reducing Democrat voter lists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 04 2019, @01:31AM
Pure bullshit.
Overwhelmingly, it is white people who volunteer (maybe for some money) for medical experiments. You even have the medical research community trying to address the "injustice" that our medicine works best on white people as a result!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday October 03 2019, @10:36PM
They suffered a side effect from being beaten to a pulp by callous researchers.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rupert Pupnick on Thursday October 03 2019, @11:17PM
Sounds like the liposome sheath that covers the blood cells prevents detection of a potential immune system mismatch, but they don’t come out and say that in TFA.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Friday October 04 2019, @09:23AM
I shudder to think how they obtained such rabbits.
I shudder even more to think what they'll do, when they proceed to testing on humans. Premeditated murder? (But 60% of the victims survived, Your Honor!) They were only [name your favorite non-US nation] wounded POWs? Denying real blood transfusions to accident victims, so that they can test the artificial variety?