Blood substitutes: time for a deep breath

Blood substitutes

Blood substitutes have long been sought after, and artificial oxygen carriers may soon become a reality. Despite increased safety of allogeneic blood in terms of transmission of infectious diseases [1], avoiding allogeneic blood transfusions remains an important goal in perioperative and intensive care medicine. This is because allogeneic blood transfusions may cause immunosuppression with an i...

Blood and blood substitutes.

Each year, in Europe, approximately seven million units of colloidal plasma substitutes are given to patients. Often they are used uncritically, which may account for the increased incidence of sideeffects which has been noted over the last decade. Their increasing use is understandable in view of the disadvantages of using blood; these include the difficulties in finding sufficient donors of a...

The search for blood substitutes.

Nanobiotechnology for hemoglobin-based blood substitutes.

Nanobiotechnology is the assembling of biological molecules into nanodimension complexes. This has been used for the preparation of polyhemoglobin formed by the assembling of hemoglobin molecules into a soluble nanodimension complex. New generations of this approach include the nanobiotechnological assembly of hemoglobin, catalase, and superoxide dismutase into a soluble nanodimension complex. ...

Take a deep breath: pulmonary research inspires.

The lung is a complex organ with multiple functions; in addition to facilitating gas exchange, it also serves as the first line of defense against inhaled environmental pathogens and toxins. Given these critical roles, disruption of normal cell function or cell-cell interactions can have devastating health consequences. The articles of this Review Series highlight recent progress in understandi...