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: nora Tags: Biotechnology Future of Medicine blood donation history biology history of medicine artificial artificial blood substitute Source Type: blogs
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