Hemoglobin-based blood substitute and its clinical application in trauma

Blood transfusion is still an imperative and effective therapeutic remedy for many diseases, especially for trauma and shock. But the donation of blood by healthy citizens is seriously inadequate, and, more recently, blood transfusion is a matter of great concern because of viral infections such as hepatitis and HIV. In addition, blood transfusion has some other limitations including difficulty of storage and transportation, and needing cross-matching because of blood group antigens. Thus, the development of an oxygen carrier, which could serve as a safe and effective alternative to human blood or red blood cell (RBC), has gained great interest worldwidely.