ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: As a kind of blood substitutes, hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers have been studied for more than 40 years. The research efforts to achieve this goal have so far gone through three different generations of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers. While the first and second generations entail the hemoglobin’s chemical modification, the third generation of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers involves the encapsulation of hemoglobin within a synthetic membrane. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the latest progress in hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers. METHODS: Using “hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers, red blood cell substitutes, artificial oxygen carriers, artificial blood” as the key words in Chinese and English, respectively, we retrieved the related literatures on the preparation of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers published from 2000 to 2019 in PubMed, CNKI, and WanFang databases. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Hemoglobin from fetus, invertebrate, and reptilian and β-subunit mutant hemoglobin have certain advantages in the preparation of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers. Latest progress has been made mainly in the modification and encapsulation of hemoglobin. And combined use of other drugs can reduce the vascular toxicity of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers. Some new possibilities in the application of hemoglobin oxygen carriers have been found, but the application of new hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers as red blood cell substitutes needs more animal experiments and clinical trials in the future.
ABSTRACT
@#This review paper aims to present an overview of the development of blood substitute particularly red blood cell substitute or artificial oxygen carrier. Knowledge on human blood inspired from the understanding of human blood circulation system. Ibn Nafis was first to describe that blood flow through respiratory system before entering the heart. This finding denied the claim that tiny pores present within the septum of the heart. Then, William Harvey further described human cardiovascular system in detail and contributed to better understanding on the roles of blood in body. Several blood transfusions were attempted using blood collected from human, animal and other blood substitutes such as milk before the practice was banned for almost 150 years in Europe. Major discoveries on blood group and antibody reaction have made blood transfusion safer. However, several issues and challenges have re-triggered the exploration to develop red cell substitutes. Two approaches have been taken to develop the red blood cell substitute which are classified into biological and chemical based oxygen carriers. The earliest efforts have been on haemoglobin based oxygen carrier (HBOC) and perfluorocarbon (PFC) while the recent developement are on polymer-based oxygen carrier and in-vitro stem cell derived red blood cell.