Creating artificial blood that could be used for blood transfusions safely has been a very difficult goal for scientists to reach, but a scientist in Romania has developed artificial blood that does not have any adverse effects in mice. Some of the benefits of artificial blood is that it could be made sterile and shelf-stable, two things that donated blood is not. However, hemoglobin (what transports oxygen in our blood) can break down very quickly or have other side effects which makes it difficult to use in artificial blood.
This new artificial blood uses hemerythrin, a natural compound from invertebrate blood that is similar to hemoglobin but holds up better when outside the body. It will be interesting to see how it is used in further studies
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2013/11/a-romanian-scientist-claims-to-have-developed-artificial-blood/
This new artificial blood uses hemerythrin, a natural compound from invertebrate blood that is similar to hemoglobin but holds up better when outside the body. It will be interesting to see how it is used in further studies
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2013/11/a-romanian-scientist-claims-to-have-developed-artificial-blood/