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Hemoglobin-based red blood cell substitutes and nitric oxide

Binglan Yu1, Kenneth D Bloch, Warren M Zapol

  • 1Anesthesia Center for Critical Care Research of the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine
|August 15, 2009
PubMed

Hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) have been studied for decades as red blood cell substitutes. Profound vasoconstrictor effects have limited the clinical utility of HBOCs and are attributable to avid scavenging of nitric oxide (NO). Inhaling NO can charge the body's stores of NO metabolites without producing hypotension and can prevent systemic hypertension induced when HBOCs are subsequently infused. Concurrent breathing of low NO doses can prevent pulmonary vasoconstriction after HBOC infusion without augmenting plasma methemoglobinemia.

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