Public Health School Research Team Says Rats Thrive on Artificial Blood

A team of researchers from the School of Public Health has successfully replaced the natural blood of laboratory rats with an artificial blood substitute.

The research team, headed by Dr. Robert Geyer, professor of Nutrition, reported this week that its blood substitute sustained life in rats whose blood had been totally removed.

The Animals thrive long enough on the artificial blood a milky solution of fluorocarbons and industrial emulsifiers for natural blood to regenerate and take over the functions of carrying oxygen and nutritional elements to tissues in the body.

The team reported that 35 rats have survived the total transfusion, apparently retaining normal behavior, breathing, eating, excretion and response to light pain and sound.

The total transfusions reported by Geyer's team are the culmination of five years of research to develop a totally artificial blood substitute.

Although the substitute has been used to achieve 80 per cent replacement in monkeys, Gever stressed that use in humans remains a distant objective.

"The real problem here is that there is a lot of impatience," Gever said. "But the complexity of blood is very important. We've developed more and more admiration for blood."

The blood substitute is likely to be useful in basic research, as a possible treatment for leukemia, anemia and shock and in organ transplants and blood transfusions for surgery.

The fluorocarbons highly inert substances that have the ability to absorb extraordinarily large amounts of dissolved gases performing the oxygen carrying function of red blood cells.

The team reported that the major problem in developing the blood substitutes was to break down the fluorocarbons into particles small enough to pass through small capillaries.

The John A. Hartford Foundation has invested more than half a million dollars in the project since 1968. The most recent grant of $122,000 for the next two years was awarded last year