Artificial blood is being developed to address the shortage of blood for transfusions, but there are still technical limitations and high costs that prevent it from being a complete alternative. It has reached the clinical trial stage, but more research and support is needed before it can be commercialized.
Some people don’t have enough healthy blood. These include people who have lost a lot of blood in an accident, leukemia patients, and people with anemia. In these cases, they need to receive healthy blood through transfusion, which is essential to save their lives. However, South Korea’s blood reserves are not sufficient. While an adequate blood reserve should be at least five days, South Korea has an average of only 3.4 days of blood, and the problem is even worse for type A and type O blood, which are the most common types in South Korea, with an average of 3.3 days and 2.6 days, respectively.
This shortage of blood for transfusion can sometimes have fatal consequences during surgeries and emergencies. If blood is not immediately available to patients who need it, the chance to save lives can be lost. Furthermore, blood shortages are expected to become an even greater challenge in the future, as blood donation rates have been declining in recent years.
In addition to this shortage, there are a number of other problems with the current blood donation and transfusion system, including infection from contaminated blood and the short shelf life of transfusion blood. The risk of infection during the transfusion process is always present, and the short shelf life of blood makes it difficult to store enough in advance.
To solve these problems, scientists and researchers have been working on the development of artificial blood. Artificial blood is a liquid that can be injected into the body and take over the functions of blood. Since Max Perutz’s discovery of the structure of hemoglobin in the 1930s, research on HBOCs (Hemoglobin Based Oxygen Carriers) and the use of stem cells to generate artificial blood has been ongoing in various directions.
The main advantages of artificial blood are as follows. First, it can be produced in large quantities. As mentioned above, we are currently facing a severe shortage of blood for transfusion. If artificial blood is mass-produced, this shortage could be solved. Secondly, it can be transfused to anyone, regardless of blood type, which is a huge advantage. Currently, only people with matching ABO and Rh blood types can receive transfusions, but artificial blood can be used for anyone regardless of blood type, which is especially useful in emergency situations. Third, it has a long shelf life. Currently, transfusion blood has a very short shelf life of five to six weeks, but artificial blood is expected to last up to two years.
However, artificial blood is not yet a perfect alternative. One of the most important functions of blood is to carry oxygen, and this is done by hemoglobin in red blood cells. Instead of hemoglobin, artificial blood tries to use a substance called HBOC (Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carrier) to transport oxygen, but it doesn’t yet fully emulate hemoglobin’s function closely enough. In addition, the HBOCs that have been developed so far have all had severe side effects, limiting their practical use.
Cost is also still a major obstacle: developing artificial blood is very expensive, and research is often halted because it cannot be funded. For example, the materials needed for stem cell research are expensive, costing tens of thousands of dollars per drop. This threatens the sustainability of the research, and the road to commercialization is still long and arduous.
However, artificial blood research has come a long way in recent years and is now on the verge of clinical trials. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is conducting clinical trials, and if the development of a technology that reduces the side effects of HBOC is successful, it could be used in real-world transfusions. However, this will require significant research funding and the interest and support of governments, companies, and the public. If these efforts are supported, it won’t be long before artificial blood is commercially available and saves lives.
