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Scientists Create Artificial Blood
simm1701 wrote us with a BBC article link on a sort of artificial blood substitute being developed by an English university. The substance is light, can survive at room temperature, and keeps longer than real blood, allowing it to be used as a stand-in in emergency situations. "The new blood is made up of plastic molecules that have an iron atom at their core, like haemoglobin, that can carry oxygen through the body. The scientists said the artificial blood could be cheap to produce and they were looking for extra funding to develop a final prototype that would be suitable for biological testing ... A sample of the artificial blood prototype will be on display at the Science Museum in London from 22 May as part of an exhibition about the history of plastics."
There are already a few companies making artificail blood in the US. One is Biopure. All of them are waiting either for the completion of clinical trials or FDA approval. The Biopure product has already been approved in other countries.
Correct me if I am wrong, but a blood replacement is being used since the 80s. If I recall it correctly it was also some kind of artificial plasma. Jehova's witnesses (a group known by their non acceptance of blood transfusions) have beeing accepting this blood replacement for years now.
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Blood substitutes have been around for a while. I remember seeing a demonstration of perfluorocarbon based artificial blood in the early 1980s. You could also breath the stuff. Or at least, the mouse they dropped in it could. This is a differrent approach, artificial hemoglobin, but I think there have been previous versions of that as well.
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It's called "blood doping" and people already do it.
As for the rest of your question, IANAD either, and I'm curious about that too.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Yes. The condition is called polycythemia, and most of the incidents involve the increased viscosity of blood leading to thrombus formation-- possibly causing heart attacks and strokes.
I would assume it wouldn't have antigens, as well (basically, it would be type O).
But you may be interested in some new research that looks to be able to remove the antigens from regular blood, thus converting all blood types to type O.
I thought clotting was caused by platelets, not red blood cells.
There aren't any "cells" in this artificial blood. It's only a mixture of compounds that can transport oxygen via individual molecularized constructs.
I'm guessing the GP meant "bus" as emergency-type-folk slang for ambulance. And, yeah, there's risks in everything, but it's generally best to minimize those risks. I'd sooner err on the side of pre-human testing than not. And getting "up in arms", or putting the burden of proof of risk vs. benefit on the tester, is a prudent way to do that.
Other people have answered, referencing blood doping, but nobody has pointed out quite how deadly this is. This article claims a dozen Dutch pro racers died of probable blood-doping-related heart issues in the late 1980's; through the pro racing grapevine people have claimed that the numbers were much higher than that.
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Polycaprolactone? I don't know, just a guess, but I think if they ever go 'live' with this, they'll (have to) find a decent solution. PCL is bio-degradable plastic and I think it degrades in a human body (check Wikipedia or so to make sure). It's used a lot in the medical field.
It's interesting to learn that they made these artificial oxygen carriers especially since blood is not simple to store and a lot of doctors are already starting to look at alternatives (saline solutions is a simple one) to add 'blood' volume when somebody loses some. This is because 'real' blood is difficult to store and handle and has the potential of disease. Another reason is that if you introduce somebody else's blood to your own bloodstream, your body will get symptoms that occur when transplanting other organs like rejection or even fatal shock (depending on the amount of blood administered).
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http://www.biopure.com/shared/home.cfm?CDID=2&CPg
Unfortunately, it's not low blood oxygen level that triggers breath hunger, it's high CO2 levels, so I doubt a blood implant would give 15-minute pool sitting benefits.
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