Another Try at Artificial Blood

kpogoda writes "There are some Swedish scientists that have successfully produced a powdered form of blood that can be used to treat patients. Although it is not ready for transfusions yet it is a major breakthrough in a much needed arena."

Comments

Powdered Blood

[Micro$will]

A.K.A. Vampire Tang

So, can it be used in tranfusions, or not?

[anactofgod]

I'm not a doctor (but I play one on TV), and I'm confused by a seeming contradiction in the article.

One paragraph states "The product is a powder made from blood that has been stored for more than six weeks and can not be used for transfusion." Later in the article, the following statement is made "The powder can be mixed into liquid when required, and transfused into patients regardless of their blood type."

Was the intent of the first statement to indicate that Hemospan is necessary, but not sufficient, in that it lacks the functionality of the platelets and plasma?

---anactofgod---

Re:So, can it be used in tranfusions, or not?

[jfengel]

As far as I can tell, they're taking just the hemoglobin from outdated blood, and then wrapping it up in a deliverable form. So it's made from blood, but they've stripped out anything that could cause rejection, along with viruses and other nasty things.

The article says that they could do it from any mammalian blood, but use human blood for "ethical reasons". PETA members, perhaps? It makes sense that this procedure could use any hemoglobin source, as all mammals are pretty much identical from that standpoint.

Personally, I'd prefer that they take the bazillions of gallons of cows' blood that are produced anyway and use it to save lives. It's not currently wasted, as it's used for a variety of agricultural and industrial uses, but it could save lives more directly by making blood substitutes cheaper.

I guess some people would REALLY prefer not to get animal blood, no matter how vigorously processed, just from the squick factor.

Two out of three Vampyres agree

[MImeKillEr]

It tastes just as good as the original!

Reminds me of the old joke:

A vampire walks into a bar and orders a glass of warm water.

The bartender brings him the glass and asks "what's this for?"

The vampire pulls out a used tampon, dunks it in the glass and says

'I prefer instant'

Or something like that....!

Re:Hmmm

[Valdrax]

The point is that it can be safely kept in storage for much longer at room temperature (which is a huge boon for developing countries) and doesn't require type-matching (which is a minor speedup for emergency care). Furthermore, it can apparently eventually be made from non-human sources. This is, in every way, cool.

Jehovah's Witnesses

[frankjr]

This is a very important development for Jehovah's Witnesses. The article mentions that it is possible to use animal blood rather than human blood for blood transfusions. It is against Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs to accept blood transfusions because it is considered to be consuming the flesh of another person. So, since accepting animal blood would not be against the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, it may clear up the controversy surrounding JW's refusal of necessary blood transfusions?

Re:Jehovah's Witnesses

[Henry Salt]

Speaking as a Jehovah's Witness, we believe that the Bible prohibits the taking of any blood - animal or human. Since the Bible is God's inspired instruction to us, that prohibition is straight from the top. In our view, a whole blood transfusion clearly counts.

See this article at watchtower.org for the full scoop on our beliefs.