Artificial Blood Made In Romania 232
First time accepted submitter calinduca writes "Artificial blood that could one day be used in humans without side effects has been created by scientists in Romania. The blood contains water and salts along with a protein known as hemerythrin which is extracted from sea worms. Researchers from Babe-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, hope it could help end blood supply shortages and prevent infections through donations." Wikipedia's entry on hemerythrin explains its unusual oxygen binding mechanism.
Let the Transylvanian jokes commence! (Score:3, Insightful)
heh. Romania, Dracula, Artificial blood, Halloween ... the late night talk show writers should have a field day with this one if it isn't some sort of elaborate ruse.
Re:not flaming (Score:5, Insightful)
Why should we care? Evolution in action.
salt and worms (Score:2, Insightful)
It looks like all the vampire jokes are covered already, so on to the actual subject.
From the summary and the wiki-link, this is a mixture of saltwater and an oxygen carrier molecule from certain worms. As long as it doesn't trigger any sort of allergy, this should work well for short duration needs (like surgery) and the simplicity of the chemicals suggests that it can bypass the protein marker issues with human blood supplies.
Re:not flaming (Score:5, Insightful)
Would something like this be accepted by groups like Jehovah's Witness' that do not accept blood transfusions?
That would be a good question. Having worked at a hospital that took over as the regional "bloodless center", I witnessed a wide variety of behaviors from JWs. Some were not very "orthodox" and would take blood, others only after consultation with their elder, others steadfastly refused. Apparently there is a lot of variation amongst individual "churches", but INAJW..
I'll tell you, a "bloodless" liver transplant is not for the faint of heart. I've been involved with a few transplants that required > 100 units of packed red cells. Doing these with none.....that stressed our skills to the max. And before you think that liver transplants can and therefore should be done bloodless...not all of bloodless ones survived. This would be a nice breakthrough.
It's interesting that this is still a cellular based concept, having to clone red cells and somehow transferring the hemerythrin. The linked article did not specify much detail.
Re:not flaming (Score:5, Insightful)
I respect their choice to die rather then accept modern healthcare.
Re:not flaming (Score:3, Insightful)
No they don't. We respect what we admire. And people with silly beliefs that are harmful are not to be admired, just tolerated. And only as long as they are the only ones harmed.
Re:not flaming (Score:5, Insightful)
Artificial blood almost certainly wouldn't count, though, as it isn't technically blood at all: blood in the religious context of Jehovah's Witnesses refers to the stuff flowing through the veins of animals. Basically, if it was never the "life" of an animal it wouldn't count. Of course, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness nor an expert on their theology, so I couldn't say for sure (but I have read the biblical passage the doctrine comes from, and I would say it absolutely doesn't include fake blood in any way).
Re:not flaming (Score:3, Insightful)
WTF? Let me restate it for you: You don't need to respect morons, only tolerate them.
Re:not flaming (Score:4, Insightful)
They are of course free to do whatever they want on their bodies, with their own money.
Unfortunately, is most often the Children that are refused transfusions, and allowed to die for an otherwise
survivable injury.