Researchers in Japan have recently invented artificial blood that can be used universally for any blood type. The scientists are mainly from the National Defense Medical College and have had good results testing it on rabbits.
One of the problems faced by trauma units around the world is identifying the correct blood type to administer transfusions. As of right now, medical staff use Type O negative when they are unsure of someone’s blood type.
Here the team discusses clinical trials performed on a rabbit:
In this rabbit model of lethal liver hemorrhage, we demonstrated that combination therapy with blood substitutes H12-(ADP)-liposomes and HbVs helped to maintain hemodynamics and hemostasis following severe traumatic hemorrhage with coagulopathy. The outcomes were as good as that achieved with allogeneic RBC/PRP transfusion, resulting in a drastic reduction of mortality.
For their study, they used 10 different rabbits that had been subjected to a lethal hemorrhaging from a livery injury. Six out of the 10 rabbits ended up surviving, which they said is the average survival rate of a normal blood transfusion. The rabbits also did not show signs of having any serious side effects from the artificial blood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=734NK7QA0eA
As part of their artificial blood, the scientists also created “hemoglobin vesicles” that have a diameter of only 250 nanometers, which serve as an oxygen carrier. They need to create these vesicles as well because in the human body we have hemoglobin that is our natural carrier of oxygen to our body’s tissues.
The artificial blood contains both platelets and red blood cells and can be stored at normal temperatures for more than one year. They will store each one known as a liposome derived from the cell membrane to transfer oxygen and stop bleeding. The study was published in the journal Transfusion.
Manabu Kinoshita is an associate professor of immunology at the National Defense Medical College who worked on the team, he said: “It is difficult to stock a sufficient amount of blood for transfusions in such regions as remote islands, the artificial blood will be able to save the lives of people who otherwise could not be saved.”
This discovery will make both emergency health care workers and vampires very excited for the future.
