Increasing the shelf life of stored blood

Increasing the shelf life of stored blood

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (DBT- ­in- Stem), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, has developed a novel blood bag technology to enhance the quality and shelf life of stored blood by 25%.

Content:

• Millions of blood units are discarded due to decline in quality during storage.
• Stored blood has a finite shelf life.
• Typically, stored cells produce various extracellular components known as damage­associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), which damage the blood cells during storage.
• The extracellular components being generated are free-­iron and free haemoglobin, bioactive lipids such as poly unsaturated fatty acids, extracellular DNA, nucleosomes, and proteins. During the storage, these components interact and damage the red blood cells (RBCs).
• Thus, custom­ designed nanofibrous sheets made with cationic and anionic polymers will help scavenge damage­ causing agents through ionic interactions and protect RBCs.
• These nanofibrous sheets can be made into blood bags and intermittent capturing of DAMPs on day 21 or 28 after collection using the novel blood bags helped protect RBCs from losing their membrane integrity and enhanced the transfusion efficiency.
• With this technology, the quality of 42 days of stored old bloodis as good as freshly collected blood and additionally it may be a boon for preserving rare blood groups.

More about the blood: https://optimizeias.com/the-blood-groups-of-humans-and-primates/