Artificial Blood: Unsolvable Biological Puzzle Or Soon-To-Be Reality?

What is the common denominator for milk, lamb blood, urine, and beer? You would never guess, so we let you off the hook: they were all tried as substitutes for blood during experiments on the quest to find an alternative fluid to replace the elixir of life: human blood. Despite the tremendous efforts, though, artificial blood remains an unsolvable biological puzzle with only a few innovative solutions that give hope that one day it will become a reality. An entire bloody business in vein? Blood has been the symbol of life for millennia – as it is connected so vehemently to good health and well-being. People noticed very early on that blood loss is connected to death. No wonder that in folk tales vampires tried to suck out blood from the living – to somehow continue their life after death. Being one of the most widely and easily available – you prick your finger, and there it is, voilá! – materials as well as one of the most complex ones, blood has been part of the collective imagination as magical, life-giving fluid and as a basic material for healthcare for centuries. Medical evidence suggests that the Incas of Peru transformed blood transfusions already 500 years ago (later turned out that the majority of people in the South American tribe had blood type O that’s why these experiments were successful), although Western medicine only started to experiment with the life-giving elixir after William Harvey first described the circulation of blood in 1616. ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Biotechnology Future of Medicine blood donation history biology history of medicine artificial artificial blood substitute Source Type: blogs