Publication Date: Wednesday Mar 15, 2000

The quest for blood alternatives

If there is one detail about the future on which science-fiction writers agree, it's that there won't be any blood drives on star ships. Presumably, the day will come when human blood will be as easily synthesized as food.

Rewind to the present. While clinical trials on human-blood substitutes proceed, researchers are still years away from licensing products that will make blood donations obsolete, according to blood bank officials.

It's been a rocky road. Last year, one of the largest manufacturers of red-cell substitutes stopped its clinical trials because of increased mortality among the people who got the substitute.

Nonetheless, Dr. Susan Galel, assistant medical director for the Stanford blood center, anticipates substitutes for red cells will be the first to come onto the market.

"I believe we will see red cell substitutes within the next five years," she says, "but they will only be for trauma or surgery settings. The products that are in trials now don't stay in the blood stream very long, so they'll only be for emergency transfusions."

In the meantime, humans remain the only source of blood for transfusions to patients in need. And, because donated blood has a limited life (5 days for platelets, 42 days for red cells and one year for frozen plasma), the need for fresh donations is constant.

To give blood, donors must weigh more than 110 pounds, be between the ages of 17 and 70, be in good health and have eaten before donating. People who have traveled to foreign countries, have had hepatitis or have questions about medications or health issues should call before coming to the center to donate.

Donors give approximately 8-10 percent of their blood and can expect the process to last about an hour.

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