Studies on citrate-phosphate-dextrose (CPD) blood supplemented with adenine

The effect of varying adenine concentrations in citrate-phosphate-dextrose (CPD) blood was studied in an attempt to optimize the storage conditions for human erythrocytes with regard to posttransfusion viability and oxygen release function. The maintenance of diphosphoglycerate (DPG) was impaired by adenine supplementation; this effect was closely related to the adenine concentration. A 0.25 mM adenine concentration in CPD blood improved the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels and the posttransfusion viability markedly, without appreciably impairing the DPG maintenance. The results suggest that CPD solution supplemented with adenine to give a 0.25 mM concentration in the blood is a better preservative for human erythrocytes than the commonly used acid-citrate-dextrose (ACD), CPD, and ACD-adenine solutions with regard to posttransfusion viability and oxygen release function. Adenine addition to this low concentration is not expected to cause renal damage even after massive transfusion.