Production of an Industrial Blood - Research Paper Example

Industrial Production Since there is periodic blood shortage, there is need to industrially produce blood to counter the shortage, as well as the emerging concerns that arise from infection transmission that are attributed to blood transfusions. The infection through blood transmission was sporadic in the late 80s and early 90s, therefore bringing up the need to industrially produce blood (Goldman et al 15). S. Kimoto of the School of medicine in Tokyo University initially enhanced progress towards industrial production of blood.

The discovery made by Dr. Kimoto together with assistance from S Kambara was successful in the production of a synthetic substance capable of transporting reasonable amount of oxygen. Dr. Kimoto was able to extract haematin from a cow’s blood and ultimately adding the large molecules of the polysterin type that would be capable of obtaining matter that would in turn release oxygen to the body (Assembly of the Japanese Medical Society, 213). Moreover, by 2006, there was hemoglobin analog that had received approval for human use in the United States (Newton, 66).

Newton continues to assert that a veterinary product called oxyglobin that is essentially produced by Biopure, a pharmaceutical company, received approval in the United States and the Europe. In 2001, its human counterpart known as Hemopure was ready for human use in South Africa. Therefore, this was the first hemoglobin analog to attain approval for human use in the world. It is imperative to ascertain that South Africa approved the product because the country needed alternative transfusions since its supply of human blood was at high risk of being damaged by the HIV and hepatitis C viruses (Newton).

Compassionately, according to Newton, Hemopure has also been widely used in the United States in almost forty cases. Compassionate-use is a situation that occurs when a patient has developed serious medical condition that requires special attention, thus instigating the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant a special, normally one-time permission to utilize a substance that has not yet been officially approved for human use. Similarly, in august 2001, another industrially produced blood called PolyHeme was subjected for approval to the FDA by Northfield Labs, its manufacturer.

PolyHeme is the end product of the extraction of Red blood cells and filtering them to sieve impurities, thereafter modifying them through certain chemicals to produce the polymerized hemoglobin analog (Newton 66). Some researchers are on the verge of applying a very different approach in industrial production of blood that will have its focus on synthesizing non-natural substances with blood-like properties. One advantage that this approach can boast of is avoiding animal or human blood, or any of its components.

Specifically, some researchers are applying the use of certain chemicals called perfluorocarbons (PFCs). In this regard, fluorine atoms replace hydrocarbons. Significant achievements were obtained when the first PFC to be commercially marketed was called Fluosol-DA that was manufactured by Japan’s Green Cross Corporation in 1983 (Newton, 66). Fluosol product had the objective of creating the first industrially prod