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Artificial Blood: Manufactured Life

Thousands of people die every year due to blood loss. At the site of trauma, it is

incredibly difficult for medical personnel to transport and arrange the injection of life-

giving blood. However, scientists have discovered a remedy to this problem. Artificial

blood is a recent advancement in biotechnology that works within the blood stream to

deliver oxygen. It is an incredible discovery, with boundless possibilities. Artificial blood

should be used instead of natural blood because of greater quantity, higher quality, and

the enormous shortage of human donors.

Natural blood has four basic parts: plasma (the liquid that allows blood to flow

and dissolves waste within the blood), platelets (form clots and heal skin breaks), white

blood cells (part of the immune system), and red blood cells (carry oxygen and carbon

dioxide). Whether on the site of an accident or in a hospital bed, blood transfusions are

crucial to oxygen deficient patients. Manufactured blood performs the most important

duty of natural blood – carrying oxygen throughout the body – and it does it much more

quickly and efficiently. Artificial blood can bring oxygen to cells when natural blood is

not enough.

Manufactured blood comes from a number of sources, whereas natural blood only

comes from human donations. Red blood cells from expired human blood and cells from

collected cow blood can both be used to create artificial blood, as well as human

placentas and genetically modified bacteria. All of these materials are used for one

purpose: hemoglobin. This is the substance that picks up and deposits oxygen.

Artificial blood is pure hemoglobin, which is why it is so incredibly fast-acting.

However, raw hemoglobin breaks down very quickly, so scientists put a protective coat

around the artificial blood cells, usually made of fatty tissue, such as lipid or cholesterol.
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This protects the hemoglobin during its flow through the blood stream, making

artificially created blood cells swift and safe.

Manufactured blood cells are much smaller than regular blood cells, allowing

them to fit into the tiniest of vessels. This can be of immense assistance when dealing

with brain injury. Artificial blood vessels are made of “polyurethane [and are] porous in

structure. Thus, multiple small-sized pores exist both in the inner and outer surfaces and

in the wall of the porous polyurethane graft” (Miyamoto 1). Basically, artificial blood

cells are porous and flexible in nature and flow easily with the bloodstream.

Manufactured blood can be made very quickly. It takes about a week to produce

blood, regardless of quantity. This will result in a virtually endless supply. Most of the

artificial blood made today is based on a strain of E-coli that produces hemoglobin. The

bacteria is grown, the hemoglobin collected, and the bacteria is destroyed. The

hemoglobin is coated in lipid, soaked in a water-like substance with electrolytes and salt,

and is ready for transfusion. This process is inexpensive and works rapidly, and does not

rely upon citizen assistance to exist. Natural blood requires donation, an act that is

steadily decreasing in American society.

Artificial blood works regardless of blood type. Because of the form of coating on

a red blood cell, the wrong type of blood transfusion will cause the body to attack the

new cells, thinking them to be a foreign substance and unrecognizable. The most

common way to group cells is the ABO distinction coupled with the Rh factor (the

positive or negative charge in the cells). Because of the various genetic factors that go

into cell wall coating, blood typing is crucial in natural blood transfusion; the wrong type

of injected can be deadly, especially to an oxygen deficient patient. This is a risk

inherently taken when doctors use natural blood.

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Manufactured blood, however, knows no typing. Since the coating on the cells is

simply lipid, the body recognizes the fat as a known substance and does not attack it,

regardless of blood type. Artificial blood knows no type and eliminates the risk of

immune system self-attack. This fact alone quadruples the amount of blood (in

comparison to the amount available through human donation) that is available to a

patient.

Artificial blood has a number of attributes that give it greater quality than natural

blood. First of all, it has a tremendously longer shelf life than natural blood. Artificial

blood can be stored for approximately 3 years and can be kept at room temperature,

whereas natural blood has a shelf life of 35 to 42 days and needs to be refrigerated.

Because of this fact artificial blood can be created in great quantities and used at need.

Natural blood must be gathered, stored carefully, transported with precision, and

transfused before expiration.

Thousands of patients die a year because there is no way to transfuse natural

blood on site, whereas artificial blood can be transformed into a paste and liquefied at the

site of an accident. Since it can be stored at room temperature without any damage

whatsoever, artificial blood is infinitely easier to work with than natural blood. Because it

is so easy to store and transport, artificial blood can be placed at ready in an ambulance

and used at need.

This is virtually impossible when using natural blood because there are so many

different type combinations that it’s impractical to store it in an ambulance. It’s

unreasonable to store every type of blood in an ambulance, keep it cold, and hope that it

can be used before expiration. Artificial blood can save a dying patient without wasting

valuable time blood type testing, worrying about expiration and disease, or delays in

transportation.
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Manufactured blood also carries oxygen at a faster rate than natural blood using

the raw power of hemoglobin-based cells. At the site of a trauma this fact is crucial.

Artificial blood can carry twice the oxygen of natural blood and do it twice as fast.

Natural blood transfusions take about 24 hours to reach full oxygen capacity transport,

whereas artificial blood transfusions immediately reach this stage. That’s 24 hours sooner

that a patient is receiving oxygen at a cellular level in the normal amount. This fact alone

can save the patient from a blood-loss related death.

In addition to these incredible benefits, artificial blood is totally and completely

sterile. Using natural blood inherently brings the risks of diseases that are sexual, viral

and bacterial. Human donations cannot be sterilized for risk of killing the cells. Also,

since artificial blood is manufactured rather than gathered this eliminates the risk of

human disease contamination. Manufacturers of blood only have to concern themselves

with keeping the blood sterile rather than removing disease already in place.

At certain plasma donation centers, patients are paid for their blood. This gives

donors motivation to lie for the money and increases the risk of contaminated donations.

Furthermore, diseases such as Mad Cow disease and Smallpox cannot be tested for in

blood. There is simply no known method. The risk for these diseases is constant in

natural blood transfusions and there’s nothing doctors can do about it. When artificial

blood is used in the transfusion, this danger is completely eliminated.

What’s more, artificial blood can be used for animals as well as humans. A pet

bleeding to death may be saved by a manufactured blood transfusion where a human

blood transfusion would cause autoimmune attack and kill the animal. Since most

veterinarians do not carry animal blood donations, artificial blood transfusions are very

helpful. The FDA has actually approved a brand of artificial blood, Oxyglobin, for legal

use in veterinary clinics.

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The final, and most important, reason that artificial blood should be used is that

there is a steady decline in the rate at which people are donating blood. Not enough of the

population is donating to keep up with the patients and victims that so desperately need

blood. Youth are donating less and less, a population whose blood is most healthy and

helpful. An individual is able to donate every two months, but very rarely does this

actually occur. On average 60% of the population in America is eligible to donate, but a

devastatingly low amount of them actually do.

As medical discoveries and processes increase, there are more operations that

require a blood transfusion. There is always a need for blood at the site of an accident.

The need for donated blood increases by 6-8% every year. In contrast the number of

donations increase by only 2% a year. In the future these statistics will become

disastrous, but artificial blood could solve this problem entirely. Doctors should not have

to rely on the population to supply the needed blood, oxygen, and nutrients to patients.

Opposing arguers declare that artificial blood carries a 30% increased risk of

death. If the transfusion is not controlled properly the bloodstream gets too much oxygen,

which releases toxins into the blood. This increases the chances of a heart attack and

subsequent death. However, these risks are minimal when compared with the exponential

benefits. When natural blood is transfused, there are risks of incorrect blood type,

disease, early expiration, and a number of dangers. The only danger cited in using

artificial blood is that it may give the patient too much oxygen.

Scientists should devote their time to discovering this miracle cure; doctors

should rely less and less on natural blood donations and more on manufactured blood

transfusions. Within a few years the United States could see a complete switchover from

natural to artificial blood.

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Artificial blood carries with it the risk of uncontrolled hemoglobin and the cells

receiving too much oxygen. Receivers of natural blood risk transmitted disease, use of

the incorrect blood type, or accidental use of expired blood. People die every year

because of these factors, so switching to artificial blood will not drastically change the

percentages.

Artificial blood research needs to become a priority. “With the present economic

problems around the world, granting agencies have to divert their resources to areas of

national priorities. What is left is then divided among the many other non-priority areas,

including blood substitutes” (Chang 25). The small organizations devoting their resources

to blood substitute research are forced to focus on very expensive clinical trials, and it is

difficult to progress. If major companies devoted their time and money to blood substitute

research, millions of lives could be saved.

A suggested method is pooling resources in a joint-company effort. This should

include national research agencies, federal and local agencies, Red Cross Societies, and

blood agencies and industries (Artificial Cells 1). Instead of independent, separate teams

of researchers companies and industries should come together and pool research. The

most important thing in this issue is saving lives, not getting ahead of the various forms

of competition.

The intense desire to pursue a course in blood substitute discovery began with the

HIV crisis in 1986. At this time there was no method of testing for sexually transmitted

diseases in blood, and patients were dying more often than not from contaminated blood

transfusions. This crisis began the long search for a suitable blood product, but if there

had been more importance and emphasis placed upon the program forty years ago it’s

possible that blood substitutes would have been ready and working and could have saved
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many lives during the crisis (Generation Blood Substitutes 2). Instead of looking at past

mistakes, scientists should devote their time now to the discovery of a safe product.

Scientists question how safe artificial blood must be before put on the market;

safety and efficacy can have many interpretations. Manufactured blood does not have to

be equivalent to blood before it can be considered clinically useful and secure. A volume

replacement solution called Ringer-Lactate is nothing more than electrolytes and glucose.

It’s similar to plasma, but it does not have protein or blood cells. The volume solution is

not equivalent to plasma, but has been well established as a sufficient and effective

plasma replacement.

Artificial blood is the same in that it does not have all the components of natural

blood, but it is an effective replacement. Within a year or two, doctors should switch to

the complete use of blood substitutes. The dangers of natural blood are equal in weight to

the risks of artificial blood, so this change will not be difficult.

Scientists have come extremely close in certain areas. In fact, one product is

nearly ready for FDA approval. “The most realistic and practical form of artificial blood

identified was a commercial product called KD151 Flowing Blood Syrup. It was found to

be not only realistic in appearance but practical in terms of storage and stain removal”

(Fahy 1). Scientists are incredibly close to a safe, inexpensive, marketable product.

Manufactured blood has awesome potential. The full and complete use of a

product could revolutionize medicine. Doctors would be able to transport and administer

blood safely and quickly, disease and blood type testing would become obsolete, and

millions of lives could be saved. Artificial blood should be used instead of natural blood

because of the spectacular amount of positive attributes, the greater number of available

transfusions, and the blood donor shortage.

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Works Cited

Chang, TMS. “Artificial Cells and Blood Substitutes.” Biotechnology 25.4 (1997): 1.

Nanomedicine. Web. 11 Aug. 2009.

<http:/‌www.medicine.mcgill.ca/‌artcell/‌priority.htm>.

- - -. “Generation Blood Substitutes.” Biotechnology 25.5-6 (1998): 1. Nanomedicine. Web. 11

Aug. 2009. <http:/‌www.medicine.mcgill.ca/‌artcell/‌shockedit.htm>.

Fahy, SD. “Standardized Testing in Artificial Blood.” Simulation in Healthcare 4.1 (2009): 4.

web.ebscohost.com/‌ehost/‌detail?vid=5&hid=103&sid=906b5b9e-2b1c-49e7-8b47-

5b58b4058fab

%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=cmedm

&AN=19212252. Web. 10 Aug. 2009.

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Maugh, Thomas H ed. US Sandiego Artificial Blood Pioneer. Artificial Blood. 9 March 2009.

Web. 3 Aug 2009. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/09/local/me-robert-winslow9

Mushlin, PD. “Beneficial Effects of Perfluorochemical Artificial Blood.” Life Sciences 36.22

(1985): 1. MEDLINE. Web. 10 Aug. 2009. <http:/‌web.ebscohost.com/‌ehost/‌detail?

vid=3&hid=103&sid=906b5b9e-2b1c-49e7-8b47-5b58b4058fab

%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=cmed

m&AN=3999916>.

Miyamoto, S. “Improvement in the Mechanical Properties of Artificial Blood .” Neurological

Surgery 18.3 (1990): 1. MEDLINE. Web. 10 Aug. 2009.

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8b47-5b58b4058fab

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ZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d>.