Live data from Hacker News

Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

asahi.com

21–30 of 109 posts

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#21

Does anyone know if this has the same "rejuvenating effects" that young blood has on older patients?

Probably not. The "rejuvenating effects" come from the body of young donors, so I don't think the artificial blood contains most of the components that human blood contains.

Citations for this subthread.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5836258/ (Young Blood Rejuvenates Old Bodies: A Call for Reflection when Moving from Mice to Men)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5770779/ (Young plasma reverses age‐dependent alterations in hepatic function through the restoration of autophagy) (Money quote: "Recent studies showing the therapeutic effect of young blood on aging‐associated deterioration of organs point to young blood as the solution for clinical problems related to old age.")

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#22

Does anyone know if this has the same "rejuvenating effects" that young blood has on older patients?

Could you link to something to provide context to your language? I've never heard of young blood -> older patient rejuvination, or how such clinical trials could be done safely. A pint of blood from a child is so much...

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#23

>Platelets can be stored for four days if shaken to prevent solidification, while red blood cells can be kept for 20 days at low temperatures. I didn't know that the shelf life of blood is that short. Does this mean it is possible that some portion of blood collected from "blood donation programs" goes waste? Because, in our country (Nepal), dozens of such programs are conducted by the Red Cross all around the countr…

A doctor in charge of a blood extraction campaign explained to me that this is exactly the reason why there is a constant high demand of blood donors. Between hospitals there are exchanges daily of blood (you might have a certain blood type that another hospital needs right now), but a lot of blood does get wasted, because of the short times it has.

They also separate blood in different kinds (platelets I think it was the term) since it can be storaged for longer, but is not as useful as a full blood transfer.

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#24

>Platelets can be stored for four days if shaken to prevent solidification, while red blood cells can be kept for 20 days at low temperatures. I didn't know that the shelf life of blood is that short. Does this mean it is possible that some portion of blood collected from "blood donation programs" goes waste? Because, in our country (Nepal), dozens of such programs are conducted by the Red Cross all around the countr…

> Does this mean it is possible that some portion of blood collected from "blood donation programs" goes waste?

Yes.

For any system which regularly collects some resource and distributes it somewhere else, some amount of that resource goes to waste. It is impossible to absolutely eliminate this. Therefore, all resource-distribution systems expect some level of waste.

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once in full production, potentially. But currently it's only been tested on rabbits. This could change the face of medicine if successful.

> This could change the face of medicine if successful. Why? Is blood shortage a serious problem in medicine?

It's not just blood shortage in total numbers (which is a problem), but people who receive transfusions often develop additional antibodies, which makes it even harder for them to receive compatible blood in the future. There are actually millions of "varieties" of blood not just the 8 main types. It can be so hard to find a successful match that blood is sometimes shipped internationally. Emergency situations can be particularly difficult.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/your-blood-typ...

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#26

On page#2 under "Preparation of HbVs and H12-(ADP)-liposomes" am I reading it correctly that this "artificial" blood is still derived from blood?

Yeah, it sounds to me like it's 'artificial' in the same way that orange juice made from concentrate is artificial.

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This could change the face of medicine if successful. Why? Is blood shortage a serious problem in medicine?

In under-developed countries like Nepal, yes. Every year women from rural villages lose their lives because of excessive bleeding. No nearby health facility has a blood type segmentation facility; let alone a blood bank. If the government could provide the artificial blood to such rural villages, we could expect to reduce the maternal mortality rate of Nepal to a great extent.

So the core issue here is you can't know what type of blood to give? Why would artificial blood solve the problem of no nearby blood banks?

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#29
Historically, there have been many efforts in the past to make artificial blood and IIRC they didn't turn out well for the patients.

It's a bit like the the body with vitamins. At first they thought vitamins were all you needed - then they started discovering micro-nutrients.

Blood is pretty complex - does this include just the highest-order bits of blood, or does it include everything that blood has?

Re: Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say

#30
post #19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An “unlimited blood budget” might obviate hemodialysis in favour of just doing a “blood change”, which—depending on how you do it—may protect the liver and kidneys from things we can’t manage to pull out in a single hemodialysis pass. It might also change the face of surgery. You know the phrase “he’s bleeding out!” Well, who cares? We have blood pressure to spare, now. We could go through a couple gallons during the…

Uuuh no. Real blood unfortunately does more than transport oxygen. So "hook them up to the tank" isn't a solution, and isn't a problem only in a surgeon's mind.

What other functions of real blood do you have in mind, that this doesn't at least have the potential to do well for a short period of time in emergencies?
Post reply on HN