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."

Thank god!

[Anarchysoft (1100393)]

I was almost out of V8.

Re:Thank god!

[tibike77 (611880)]

Vampires, rejoice ! Soon, the artificial blood project will be complete !
New, in Italian, Mexican and Indian flavors.

Re:Thank god!

[Bent Mind (853241)]

Nah, I'll stick with natural. This artificial stuff tastes too much like plastic.

All day and all of the night

[Dogtanian (588974)]

Nah, I'll stick with natural. This artificial stuff tastes too much like plastic

If this takes off, all the vampires'll be going around trying to figure out which humans are "organic" and which have the plastic stuff in their blood. You can't tell just by looking. Hey!..... I know a song about that.

# A man lives at the corner of the street,
And his neighbors think he's helpful and he's sweet,
'Cause he never swears and he always shakes you by the hand,
But no one knows he really is a plastic man. #

# He's got plastic heart, plastic blood and veins
(Yeah, he's plastic man)
He's got p

Re:

[Bloke down the pub (861787)]

Not Chinese? I suppose it'd taste nice, but after an hour you'd feel like another.

Can I get it in green?

[tod_baudais (572245)]

Can I get it in green?

Re:Can I get it in green?

[GundamFan (848341)]

Perhaps a blue variety for the upper class English?

Can I get it in cows?

[Mahjub Sa'aden (1100387)]

Forget different colours. What we should do is genetically modify cows to produce blood instead of milk. How awesome would that be?

Although it would give a whole new meaning to "clotted cream".

Re:Can I get it in cows?

[C0rinthian (770164)]

I think Cows produce that already, but I'm no biologist...

lasting effects?

[Turn-X Alphonse (789240)]

But what about introducing plastic to the blood stream? Surely the body is going to flip out and attack it, which isn't exactly helpful in an emergency situation.

Re:lasting effects?

[Applekid (993327)]

Not all plastics cause the body to flip out as you describe it.

I'd be more concerned with where they go after the emergency is over. The spleen collects dead red blood cells... do the artifical ones "die"? What happens to the plastic then?

IANAD, so, can any harm happen with an excess of red blood cells? Maybe this will lead to a future where some could supercharge their blood to maximize oxygen carrying ability.

Re:lasting effects?

[_xeno_ (155264)]

IANAD, so, can any harm happen with an excess of red blood cells? Maybe this will lead to a future where some could supercharge their blood to maximize oxygen carrying ability.

It's called "blood doping [wikipedia.org]" and people already do it.

As for the rest of your question, IANAD either, and I'm curious about that too.

Re:lasting effects?

[amabbi (570009)]

IANAD, so, can any harm happen with an excess of red blood cells? Maybe this will lead to a future where some could supercharge their blood to maximize oxygen carrying ability.

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.

Re:

[smellsofbikes (890263)]

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 [sfgate.com] 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.

Re:

[guruevi (827432)]

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 'bloo

Re:

[mrbluze (1034940)]

I'd be more concerned with where they go after the emergency is over. The spleen collects dead red blood cells... do the artifical ones "die"? that happens to the plastic then?

That's the point of the research, I guess. The obvious advantage is that since the stuff is totally synthetic, it is guaranteed to be sterile, hence the long shelf life. But I wonder along with you about them calling the stuff 'plastic'.

Since the functions of a red blood cell (apart from carrying oxygen) include:

1. Preventing the haemoglobin escaping and being degraded in the blood stream
2. Reducing the osmotic (water pulling) effect of haemoglobin if it were free
3. Keeping the haemoglobin in the blood stream

Re:

[SQLGuru (980662)]

Also, wouldn't it cause problems related to clotting and what not? Worst case, you get a plastic scab on a wound, but in reality, I would expect it to cause problems where you'd essentially become a hemophiliac because your blood could not coagulate. And doesn't the body already do "house cleaning" to eliminate blood periodically. What happens to all of that plastic that the body can't eliminate?

Layne

Re:

[nixkuroi (569546)]

That's not a problem, that's a super power! If they could make these things from Kevlar, you put some in a guy, he gets shot and the wound scabs over with a bullet proof protective shell - finally realizing our dream of substantiating the "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger" cliche' we keep hearing about!

Sign me up!

Re:lasting effects?

[Drooling Iguana (61479)]

I've heard that they did have a problem with the body's immune system flipping out and attacking the new artificial blood cells in early testing, but since they fitted each one of them with a miniature eyepatch and peg leg they've been able to defend themselves quite effectively.

Re:lasting effects?

[FictionalAccount (1041822)]

Turn-X furiously tapped away at his keyboard, sweat dripping from his brow. Time was of the essence, and he had to get his message out NOW.

The story had just come up over the SlashWire, and unlike the usually dismissive drivel, this one caught his eye. Artificial blood. Something wasn't right here. They were going to investigate artificial blood? He thought back to his high school biology and that time he skinned his knee. Also that one program he saw on Nova. Blood...body...plastic...NO GOOD! My God, what if the body totally flipped out and went all attack mode on the blood! An emergency situation would be totally ruined!

He had to act.

Quickly he hit the reply button. The world needed to know before the scientists made an irreversible mistake. As fast as his fingers could go, he tapped out his response and hit sumbit. Now all he could do was wait. The story was fresh, so he might have caught it in time.

Yes! There it was. The Slashmods had taken notice. A reply. A mod point. But not good enough...not yet. Minutes ticked by, the story was already the second down. Would he make it in time?

Waiting...waiting...

YES! +5 moderation! He sighed. His point was made, and now the world knew. The scientists would roll back their plans and head back to the drawing board.

Turn-X would sleep well tonight.

Re:

[Moofie (22272)]

It is now my mission in life to be lampooned by you. I can't wait. : )

Re:

[Rycross (836649)]

Everyone is stupid about something at some point in their life. You just gotta sit back, relax, and laugh at yourself.

Re:

[ch-chuck (9622)]

the uniformed slashdot readers of the world

There's a slashdot uniform? Where do I get one? What is it, some kind of green jumpsuit with special insignia on it?

What group is it?

[Bastard of Subhumani (827601)]

I assume, though it's not mentioned, that it would be type neutral? That in itself would be a big advantage.

Re:

[illegalcortex (1007791)]

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 [sciencedaily.com] that looks to be able to remove the antigens from regular blood, thus converting all blood types to type O.

that explains the vampires last night

[swschrad (312009)]

attacking my vinyl gutters and screaming, "plastic! PLASSSTIC! we must have plasssticcc!!!"

threw 'em a floppy and shut the window.

Re:

[Tablizer (95088)]

attacking my vinyl gutters and screaming, "plastic! PLASSSTIC! we must have plasssticcc!!!" threw 'em a floppy and shut the window.

Use #462 for AOL disks: Vampire Decoy
     

Won't be a big hit.

[t_ban (875088)]

vampires will continue to prefer organic.

Re:

[dr_dank (472072)]

Two words: vampire methadone.

Artificail Blood is old news

[jr01945 (930139)]

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.

Hmm

[El Lobo (994537)]

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.

Re:

[GundamFan (848341)]

I'm guessing the innovation here isn't that this is a plasma replacement so much as it is a way to replace blood cells, which I assume would be combined with an artificial plasma product to produce artificial "whole blood" that is typeless, free of biological contaminants and most of all able to be manufactured as needed.

true

[wizardforce (1005805)]

But what about introducing plastic to the blood stream? Surely the body is going to flip out and attack it, which isn't exactly helpful in an emergency situation.

the body does attack certain polymers proteins being an example of this as in incompatible blood types and a possible solution could be to coat the compound in a coating that the body doesn't attack- like its own proteins or something along those lines like an artificial blood cell.

uhh, but now you are introducing typing again

[swschrad (312009)]

every body protein has irregularities, and now you are going to invite the body to start attacking the fake blood. get out occam's razor and start slicing your theory...

Old News..

[by Anonymous Coward]

Posted Anon because I don't care about Karma. These guys may have invented a new type of fake blood but its not a new thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolyHeme [wikipedia.org]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_substitutes [wikipedia.org]

There was a big stink a while back about FDA trials without consent. The problem is if your in shock and being serviced by first responders you don't really have time to fill out a consent form and the EMT's can't carry real blood with them so synthetic blood is the only option.

Not Exactly New

[good soldier svejk (571730)]

Blood substitutes [wikipedia.org] 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.

The Singularity is Near....

[PHAEDRU5 (213667)]

I attended a lecture by Ray Kurzweil, where he talked about medical breakthroughs that are on the point of revolutionizing human life.

Among other things he talked about blood substitutes, describing how the day is near when you'll be able to take a single deep breath and sit on the bottom of your pool for 15+ minutes, so efficient will be your (artificially enhanced) uptake of oxygen.

He gave a great speech. I recommend his book, "The Singularity is Near."

Re:

[fbjon (692006)]

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.

Aspertame

[king-manic (409855)]

It's Aspertame for vampires.

Artificial blood for my cat

[AlpineR (32307)]

My cat got very sick a few years ago after being bitten by a raccoon. When the local vet couldn't diagnose the problem we took him to the College of Veterinary Medicine [msu.edu] at Michigan State University. The cat couldn't even stand up and was fading fast so they wanted to give him a transfusion. But when they tried to match his blood type the samples reacted against every donor they checked. So they offered to try an experimental artificial blood.

The artificial blood kept him alive long enough to identify a parasite infection, start him on treatment for the parasites, and let him recover until a natural blood donor could be found and infused. He was hospitalized for over a week but finally recovered and is perfectly healthy now. The interesting side effect is that he bulked up massively since the illness. He's over twenty pounds and extremely muscular. I don't know which artificial blood they used and what other side effects it had, but it seems like it might have more applications beyond just blood replacement for emergencies.

AlpineR

Re:Artificial blood for my cat

[LordP (96602)]

Your cat has been in training and is out looking for that damn raccoon to exact vengeance.

Lots of benifets beyond medical necessity

[jfmiller (119037)]

IANAD, but I have worked as a hospital chaplain.

This is a big deal for a lot of reasons. I'd like to point out a few of the less obvious

Jehova's Witnesses have already been mentioned, but add to this list dome forms of Judiasm, branches of Meninite Christianity, and others as divers as the Hmong [wikipedia.org] refuse blood transfusions. Artificial plasma (sometimes called artificial blood) is acceptable as are the use of cell savers. Unfortunately neither of these are effective against the uncontrolled loss of blood, or against blood based diseases that kill of red blood cells. The ability to artificially add O2 capacity and not just volume to the blood will a very welcome thing for these groups. From first hand experience being with families, I can tell you that no matter what the ultimate decision, being caught between needing blood and keeping faith is a heart breaking and guilt ridden experence for doctors, patients and families.

The other issue I want to bring up is the trust of the blood supply. There is an unfortunate and sad history of treating minorities in the US with inferior medicine, which has included infected blood. The rumors that such practices are ongoing persist particularly in the homeless populations. My perception from talking with some of the people who believe these rumors is that artificial blood would be perceived as safer. Perception is often stronger then reality when it comes to patient compliance, and even if this remains a sub-optimal solution when compared to whole blood (my guess is this will remain the case though IANAD) it is better then refusing treatment.

I hope that this is proven to be save and effective.

Re:

[Hatta (162192)]

I can tell you that no matter what the ultimate decision, being caught between needing blood and keeping faith is a heart breaking and guilt ridden experence for doctors, patients and families.

Yeah but for secular darwinists it's a laugh and a half.

Celebrities of the World - rejoice!

[Shemmie (909181)]

Now not only can your noses, your breasts, your pecks and so forth be plastic, but your blood can be plastic too!
"Plastic to the core, baby!"

My memory on this is vague.

[xerxesVII (707232)]

I seem to recall reading about an emergency blood substitute in the late 90s. The odd thing about it was that it wasn't red, but white. There was a picture of a lab rat (albino, of course) that had a complete transfusion and its eyes were silver. Does anyone else remember this?

hmm... PurBlood anybody?

[blankmange (571591)]

How is it Preston & Child wrote about this stuff years ago? If you read "Mount Dragon", you got a creepy feeling when you read the BBC article...

Re:Silicon

[jayayeem (247877)]

The side effects of losing 3 liters of blood before I can get you to the hospital are already well known and likely to be worse than the side effects of artificial blood. The big news here is that it could be stored longer with less refrigeration, so I can carry it on my bus.

Re:

[Oniko (865215)]

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.

Re:Silicon

[dubbreak (623656)]

They used silicon..

but they found that flat square boobs weren't fashionable so they moved to using silicone.

Re:

[Incadenza (560402)]

i would like to know the long term side effects of this.

Yes, why switch to something new when we have a well-tested system, blood donations, that is totally free of long term side effects [bbc.co.uk], and has always been 100% safe [iht.com].