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The future of solving the blood supply crisis: How will artificial blood change the medical world?
The blood supply crisis has become a thorny issue in healthcare systems around the world. As the population ages and the incidence of blood diseases increases, traditional blood donation methods cannot meet the growing demand. In this context, the research and development of artificial blood products provides new possibilities for solving this crisis.
Artificial blood products can not only simulate certain functions of blood, but also avoid the potential risk of disease transmission in traditional blood transfusions.
Artificial blood products, or blood substitutes, are substances that can simulate and perform some of the functions of biological blood. It aims to provide an alternative to blood transfusions. Although there is currently no recognized substitute for oxygen-carrying blood, some non-blood volume expanders have been widely used to effectively help medical workers protect patient safety in specific situations.
The major categories of blood substitutes include hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) and perfluorocarbon emulsions. Researchers are pursuing these technologies to enable rapid and safe delivery of oxygen-deprived blood transfusion support during emergency situations or large-scale disasters. In 2023, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that it would provide funding to 12 universities and research institutions to conduct research on synthetic blood, which injected new impetus into future hopes.
In emergency situations, artificial blood can quickly provide necessary oxygen and can be used even when there is no matching blood type.
The popularization of artificial blood products faces multiple challenges, such as current technological limitations and potential side effects. Some early hemoglobin substitutes failed to perform as expected in clinical trials, increasing the risks of their use. However, with the development of technology, more and more studies show that artificial blood products may be successful in the future.
Among them, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are an attractive option. PFC is insoluble in water and must be dispersed in water in the form of an emulsion. This property enables it to flow through tiny blood vessels. Unlike hemoglobin, PFC can provide a stronger oxygen transport capacity and may be effective in damaged tissues and deficient tissues. Provide support to patients in case of blood loss.
People may even be able to survive by breathing liquid PFCs, a theory that opens the door to new medical applications in the future.
In addition to perfluorocarbons, researchers are exploring other stem cell-based methods of blood production. Studies have found that mature red blood cells can be grown from hematopoietic stem cells, and this blood can provide support for patients with all common blood types. Research by the US military even shows that the production cost of artificial blood will be greatly reduced, paving the way for its popularization in the future.
Despite the challenges, researchers are growing more optimistic about artificial blood products as technology improves. If this technology can be successfully implemented, it will witness a revolution in how modern medicine is redefined. Whether on the battlefield, in remote areas or during an epidemic, the value of artificial blood products will become a matter of life and death.
If artificial blood products are successfully put into use, how will future medical challenges be fundamentally changed?
