Banked Blood May Not Be As Effective As Hoped

URSpider alerts us to two separate research reports published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pointing to the rapid breakdown of nitric oxide in donated blood as a reason why such blood loses its ability to transfer oxygen, and is sometime implicated in problems such as strokes and heart attacks. Nitric oxide depletion is significant after 3 hours of storage; yet current guidelines allow for storing donated blood for up to 42 days. The article notes: "Several of the researchers, including Stamler, have consulting and/or equity relationships with Nitrox/N30, a company developing nitric oxide based therapies."

Comments

Re:How it worked in 1960's Mexico

[NerveGas]

And what if someone isn't around with the right blood type?

I have a fairly rare blood type, I used to get called regularly asking me to donate more. Well, until they gave me a false positive for HIV. Despite the fact that I flat-out don't have HIV (and all subsequent tests backed that up), I'm still not allowed to donate again, ever.

One of the rules about blood donation that seems odd is that if you have received a blood transfusion, you wait for a full year before you can give blood again. Since it doesn't take anywhere near that long for your body to "fill up" again, that seems like they're saying "Hey, we don't really have a lot of confidence in our own system."