Reducing Oxidative Stress in Transfused Blood
February 25, 2014 | Terry Sharrer

Hemanext
Blood banking is big business in healthcare, and one of its challenges is maintaining donated blood’s shelf life. The FDA limits storage of donated blood to six weeks, but, in fact, the stored red blood cells lose their capacity to carry oxygen as even that time frame progresses. To address this, a Bethesda, MD-based company, New Health Sciences, has developed a process that uses a hollow filter tube with an oxygen and carbon dioxide-absorbent material to preserve RBC’s anaerobicly. The company claims that blood preserved in this way will have the characteristics of two week old blood when it reaches its six weeks limit. MORE
Image Credit: New Health Sciences and MedCityNews.com