Blood substitute ; Red blood cell substitute ; Hemoglobin based oxygen carrier
Abstract
Blood substitutes, especially red blood cell (RBC) substitutes, have been developed for the past five decades and have several advantages over allogenic packed RBCs, including a prolonged half-life, lack of a cross-matching requirement, and minimal infection risk or concerns about immunologic reactions. There are two main groups in RBC substitutes: perfluorochemicals and hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs). HBOCs are made of hemoglobins from:human, bovine or recombinant and undergo three modification types: chemical (intramolecular cross-linking, polymerization, conjugation to macromolecules and combination of several chemical modifications), genetic, or technological (microencapsulation). The types, side effects, current status of clinical trials, and the future of HBOCs are described in details