LOUISVILLE, Ky. — We all know how vital our blood supply is, so what if we were able to freeze our blood and use it years later? Two years ago, it was just an idea, but today, it's becoming a reality, thanks to a group of researchers at the University of Louisville.
Others have tried it, but few have come this close to solving our nation's shortage of blood supply and saving lives.
"It's actually amazing how much progress we've made," Michael Menze, an associate professor in Biology at the University of Louisville said. Menze is working with a group of UofL engineers and biologists to prolong the shelf-life of our red blood cells.
"Blood can only be stored for 42 days at refrigeration," Menze said.
It's why there always seems to be a shortage of blood supply in the hospitals. You donate blood, hoping it goes to someone in need, but if it doesn't get used within those 42 days, it's wasted. But what if that wasn't the case?
The group has found a way to freeze-dry blood, using a sugar preservative, and a method developed by Jonathan Kopechek, an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Louisville. Kopechek recently traveled around the country, from Puerto Rico to Alaska, learning about what the country's current needs are and limitations of blood storage in hospitals.
"Our process is the first one that we're aware of, that can safely get enough sugar in to protect the cells when they're frozen and later dried without destroying them in the process," Brett Janis, a Ph.D. candidate in biology at UofL said.
Once the sugar is added, the blood samples are put into a freezer, sitting at roughly -112 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, it's latched onto a machine, which acts as a vacuum, pumping out the remaining water vapor from the blood supply.
You're left with powdered, dried blood.
Samples currently being tested have been stored for almost 6 months now and bringing it back to life is as simple as adding water.
"When you take out the water, the cell can no longer age or degrade. But cells are maintained by water, so the sugar acts as a water replacement, turning each cell into a small bead of glass. When you add water, that glass dissolves and you're left with sugary blood - completely rehydrated - and can be transfused into an animal," Janis said added. The freeze-dried blood has already been tested with rats and it's working.
"It's behaving like a blood transfusion, so no harm being done that we can detect and it seems to have therapeutic effects," he added.
There is still a ways to go, but the hope is to have this available for human trials in the next five years. One group, in particular, could begin using it much earlier.
"Up to 80 percent of preventable deaths in the battlefield is due to blood loss," Menze said. Menze says the military is showing some real interest.
"A war fighter on the battlefield doesn't have an option. They don't have a refrigerator ten feet away with blood in it. So, for them, about halfway through clinical trials, they might authorize emergency use. So, if somebody's on the battlefield, losing blood and there's no other chance at survival, they can take the experimental treatment," Janis said.
Menze says the blood, in its frozen state, could stay viable under any temperature, for years if not decades or longer.
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"Hopefully they'll never need it, but if they do, it could mean the difference of whether they come back or not," Kopechek said.
The group has wrapped up trials with rats, and will soon move on to pigs, before making the move to people. NASA and the National Institutes of Health are among the big supporters and are helping fund UofL's research. The National Science Foundation and UofL are also big supporters.
Contact reporter Brooke Hasch at bhasch@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Hasch) and Facebook.
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