Blood Substitutes
A blood substitute (also called artificial blood or blood surrogates) is a substance used to mimic and fulfill some functions of biological blood, usually in the oxygen-carrying sense. It aims to provide an alternative to blood transfusion, which is transferring blood or blood-based products from one person into another.
The main categories of such oxygen-carrying blood substitutes are hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOC) and perfluorocarbon-based oxygen carriers (PFBOC). Oxygen therapeutics are in clinical trials in the U.S. and Europe, and Hemopure is available in South Africa.
Read more about Blood Substitutes: Oxygen-carrying Substitutes, History, Advantages Over Human Blood, Risks, Other Functions Than Carrying Oxygen
Famous quotes containing the words blood and/or substitutes:
“Where a blood relation sobs, an intimate friend should choke up, a distant acquaintance should sigh, a stranger should merely fumble sympathetically with his handkerchief.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“When all is said and done, friendship is the only trustworthy fabric of the affections. So-called love is a delirious inhuman state of mind: when hot it substitutes indulgence for fair play; when cold it is cruel, but friendship is warmth in cold, firm ground in a bog.”
—Miles Franklin (1879–1954)