Previous blood substitutes have failed for 3 main reasons. (1) dysfunctional oxygen interactions resulting from fixed oxygen affinity, allowing adequate oxygen capture in the lungs, but poor oxygen release to tissue (i.e., oxygen affinity is not context responsive to physiologic cues of perfusion sufficiency such as pH, etc.), (2) interference with normal regulation of blood vessel caliber, with inappropriate trapping of the endogenous vasodilator nitric oxide resulting in intense vasoconstriction and tissue ischemia, and (3) inability to maintain hemoglobin functionality during circulation, with hemoglobin auto-oxidizing to methemoglobin which cannot carry and deliver oxygen, thus resulting in a drastically limited effective circulation time.
The individual artificial blood components, which will form the whole blood analog in this proposal, have been designed to overcome these previous design flaws. In addition, all components are amenable to facile reconstitution after extended, ambient dry storage, allowing sustained shelf stability.
In short, these components are ripe for integration to form a product recapitulating natural blood performance.
This study will use data and specimens collected under this protocol and will prospectively enroll new subjects at UMB for observational study. There will not be issues related to the probability of group assignment, the potential for subject to be randomized to a placebo group or the use of controlled substances.
There is only one cohort involved in this study
1\. Prospective healthy adults (UMB only)
