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Biotech Science

Scientists Create Artificial Blood 225

Posted by Zonk from the plastics-we're-in-you dept.
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."
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Scientists Create Artificial Blood More

Scientists Create Artificial Blood

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  • I was almost out of V8.

  • Can I get it in green? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tod_baudais ( 572245 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:28PM (#19088569)
    Can I get it in green?

  • lasting effects? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:28PM (#19088579) Journal
    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? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Applekid ( 993327 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:33PM (#19088693)
      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? (Score:5, Informative)

        by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:37PM (#19088759) Homepage Journal

        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? (Score:5, Informative)

        by amabbi ( 570009 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:38PM (#19088781)

        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: (Score:2)

          by jfengel ( 409917 )
          And if you've got xenopolycythemia, you've got less than a year to live. Unless you can find the cure on some artificial asteroid that you happen by chance to run into at precisely the time you're diagnosed.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Ucklak ( 755284 )
            I was going to mention that the cure is in some book protected by a voice that can electrocute people on a whim but fail to stop people from opening a door.
            Also, if you are on this artificial asteroid, you can get married to the priestess and NOT change your clothes once you've resigned to the fact that you'll spend the rest of your life on said asteroid.
          • Xenopolycythemia, eh? What's the matter Bones, triox compound not good enough for you? You had to go and inject yourself with alien hemoglobin, didn't you? No, don't try blaming it on Spock. You're the doctor. You should know better.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Znork ( 31774 )
        "can any harm happen with an excess of red blood cells?"

        NAD either, but if you consider common blood failure modes that would probably be in the realms of blood clots (plastic clots?), ie, too thick blood causing blockage, or blood not clotting (plastic blood doesnt result in breakage of blood cells at point of injury, and thus messes with triggers for clotting) and you get bleeding (which may or may not be a problem if you have an unlimited supply of plastic blood).

        I can certainly see the use, but the long

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by LWATCDR ( 28044 )
        Plastics tend can be very inert. As to getting rid of it. Well like most stuff that gets put into your blood I would guess that you will excrete it in your urine. I am sure that they have figured that all out.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by 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: (Score:3, Informative)

        by 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: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by 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: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 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
      • At a guess, the plastic molecule will probably end up being collected like dead blood cells and other foreign bodies in the blood stream eventually. And then eliminated in urine. Maybe it is a bit naive, but the people working on this stuff are much smarter than most of us on /. when it comes to biology, I'm sure they have thought of this.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by RobNich ( 85522 )
          IANAD, but I do know that dead red blood cells are eliminated through the stool, not urine. They are broken down by the spleen and bone marrow, the globin converted to amino acids to be reabsorbed through the bloodstream. The rest of the cell remains are biliruben which the liver filters are excretes in bile into the small intestine.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by 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!
      • 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.

        Clots and scabs are made from platelets [wikipedia.org]. I don't think that artificial red blood cells [wikipedia.org] would affect the ability to clot.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ucklak ( 755284 )
          I don't think that if you are one to receive this artifial blood that it would become an out-patient type of thing.
          They're not going to give you a shot of blood and say "See you back in 2 weeks!"

          You're going to be messed up and need blood yesterday to get this. You're going to be in a controlled environment and will probably have some IV type of thing in you to pull out the plastic cells once your body is able to produce it's own.
    • Surely the body is going to flip out and attack it, which isn't exactly helpful in an emergency situation.

      But that would be very useful for ninjas

    • Re:lasting effects? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Drooling Iguana ( 61479 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:47PM (#19088941)
      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.
    • Perhaps They could make the artificial blood out of the same sort of material that they use for dissolving sutures. Your red blood cell count usually takes a couple of weeks to come back to normal after a serious bleed. So as the artificial blood dissolves, brand new natural red blood cells take over.

  • What group is it? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bastard of Subhumani ( 827601 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:29PM (#19088593) Journal
    I assume, though it's not mentioned, that it would be type neutral? That in itself would be a big advantage.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by 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.

      • 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.

        Darn it! Just when I was beginning to feel important! If they can convert any blood type to O, then what do they need me for?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lawpoop ( 604919 )
      Blood types are description of antigens (or something like that) on the surface of blood cells. Types A and B are two different antigens; 0 means a lack of antigens. The +/- is the presence or absence of another antigen. So someone who is AB+ has A, B and + antigens, and their blood would be a problem for anybody but AB+ types. 0- has no antigens ( or at least, none of the antigens that cause problems), so they can donate to anyone. 0+ can donate to anyone who has +, B+ can donate to anyone with B+ -- peopl
      • The +/- indicator is for the Rhesus D antigen [wikipedia.org], part of the Rhesus blood group.

        In reading a related wikipedia page, I see that the blood conversion technique does not remove the Rh D antigen. So the synthetic blood may have one up on it in this regard.

  • that explains the vampires last night (Score:5, Funny)

    by swschrad ( 312009 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:30PM (#19088597) Homepage Journal
    attacking my vinyl gutters and screaming, "plastic! PLASSSTIC! we must have plasssticcc!!!"

    threw 'em a floppy and shut the window.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by 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
           
  • vampires will continue to prefer organic.

  • Artificail Blood is old news (Score:5, Informative)

    by jr01945 ( 930139 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:31PM (#19088627) Homepage
    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.
    • This is 100% artificial blood, not a blood derived from animal blood. The best artificial blood? Modified horse. The one you mentioned? Bovine.

      Do "I" care either way? Nope. I have a rare blood type and would accept anything.

      But people with some religions do. Hindu's would not accept the bovine derived blood, and the Jehovia's witnesses wouldn't accept any form of blood derived from another's blood.

      If the JW accept this product, then fewer of them will die in surgery, or have their children die. Fewer

  • Hmm (Score:2, Informative)

    by 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.
    • 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.
    • There have been many "blood expanders" on the market for many years now, and that has been a great help to Jehovah's Witnesses in emergency medical situations. However, those mostly are used to dilute the blood so that during surgery fewer red cells are lost.

      However this appears to be an artificial source of red cells, and would be an even greater boon to medical science (and in the short term, a huge help for JW's undergoing medical treatment) since it eliminates many of the problems (physical problems for

  • 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.
    • 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...

      • every body protein has irregularities, and now you are going to invite the body to start attacking the fake blood.
        even type-o blood has proteins- they just are not attacked as readily as the antigen marker compounds are. what I am suggesting is to use some compound- any compound that has little if any known immunological reaction.

  • Old News.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    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.

    • 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 the only option, in case of emergency I would always be open to having a few bloody marys administered.
  • 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.
  • And now, Pam can complete her plastic makeover.
  • Good, otherwise I would lose my main source of livelihood :P

  • The Singularity is Near.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PHAEDRU5 ( 213667 ) <instascreed@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:51PM (#19089015) Homepage
    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: (Score:3, Informative)

      by 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.
  • Here's a link about the blood substitute in more detail
    http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2 075544,00.html [guardian.co.uk]
  • they've already administered a trial batch to Dick Cheney.

  • Aspertame (Score:4, Funny)

    by king-manic ( 409855 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @03:21PM (#19089471)
    It's Aspertame for vampires.

  • Fake Blood (Score:2, Funny)

    by emudoug42 ( 977380 )
    You rock me like the real thing... and if you were the real thing, you'd rock me even more
  • Soo... why is this news when there hasn't even been animal testing yet?

    I wonder why it's colored red, too. Is it just to make people feel better, or did all the iron atoms start to rust...

    • Soo... why is this news when there hasn't even been animal testing yet?

      I'm not so sure this is very different than PolyHeme [wikipedia.org] which is artifical blood made with polymerized human haemoglobin extracted from expired donated blood.

      Eventually PolyHeme was tested on humans using an opt-out technique (if you didn't have a special bracelet on your wrist, they could use PolyHeme instead of real blood in trama situations where you couldn't object to being a test subject). As you might imagine, medical testing u

  • SmartBlood (tm)

  • Artificial blood for my cat (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AlpineR ( 32307 ) <wagnerr@umich.edu> on Friday May 11, 2007 @03:47PM (#19089887) Homepage

    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

    • Here's my off-the-cuff theory:

      If it was the same thing here, plastic molecules with an iron complex in them, perhaps the plastic couldn't be broken down.

      It also wouldn't be detected by the body's endocrine system. Therefore, once your pet got better, he started generating the required amount of RBC's for him to function regularly - except that his blood already has the permanent synthetic RBCs in it!

      I really shouldn't be a psychology major.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by wesborgmandvm ( 893569 )
      The "experimental artificial blood" was a product called Oxyglobin. While it is approved for dogs it may still be considered off label when used in cats. However the reason your cat bulked up was not from the Oxyglobin, it was because the parasites were gone. It is likely the parasites were causing a sub-clinical illness (and wt loss) for months or years before getting sick.

      http://www.biopure.com/shared/home.cfm?CDID=2&CPgI D=54 [biopure.com]

    • Re:Artificial blood for my cat (Score:5, Funny)

      by LordP ( 96602 ) on Saturday May 12, 2007 @02:06AM (#19093909) Homepage
      Your cat has been in training and is out looking for that damn raccoon to exact vengeance.

  • Lots of benifets beyond medical necessity (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jfmiller ( 119037 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @04:01PM (#19090099) Homepage Journal
    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: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 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! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Shemmie ( 909181 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @04:02PM (#19090119)
    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!"
  • I've been reading artificial blood articles on Slashdot for 5 years now. Maybe longer. The title reads as if its the first time. Just mentioning..

  • My memory on this is vague. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xerxesVII ( 707232 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @04:18PM (#19090399)
    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?
  • "Enjoy your cheap plastic replacement!"

  • hmm... PurBlood anybody? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by blankmange ( 571591 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @08:27PM (#19092577)
    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...

  • "The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield!"

  • "The substance is light"
    Patients will be in glowing health.

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