"The Search for Artificial Blood"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"The Search for Artificial Blood"

Washington Post (Health) (10/13/92), P. 10
Herman, Robin

Abstract: Biotechnology firms and government research groups are scramblingt to find a plentiful and safe alternative for blood products as a result of the increased concerns about the risks of blood transfusions. Although the chances of contracting HIV from blood transfusions is only about one in 225,000 units of transfused blood, HIV has been the driving force in finding a blood alternative, said Robert Winslow, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego and former chief of the Army's Letterman Institute of Research's blood research division. Researchers looking for a substitute target only one component of blood--the oxygen carrying protein molecule called hemoglobin, which is contained inside the protective membrane of the red blood cell. An effective blood substitute would be free of disease and toxic compounds, plentiful, would have a shelf-life of a year, and would not incite immune responses, so it could be used by anyone, regardless of blood type. While researchers have been studying hemoglobin since 1916, they are far from designing an ideal product. Blood substitutes currently under development have at best a circulation time of 24 hours before they are metabolized by the body, making them only temporary stand-ins until donated human blood can be transfused. Only two companies, Baxter Healthcare Corp. and Somatogen Inc., presently have hemoglobin substitutes in early clinical trials in which new products are tested on people with the approval of the Food and Drug Administration. But any product approved for general use is likely to be at least five years away, according to one researcher.

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