[Development and clinical application of the artificial blood as the oxygen carriers]

The artificial oxygen carrier first applied in clinical treatment was Fluosol-DA, which is one of the perfluoro-chemicals. However it is not used now because of low oxygen carrying ability and immunological disturbance. On the contrary, outdated human hemoglobin is currently used by many researchers who are challenging to develop artificial oxygen carriers. There are two types of hemoglobin based oxygen carriers, acellular and cellular types. The former type oxygen carrier is produced by modifying the outdated hemoglobin, and in the later case, the outdated hemoglobin is encapsulated by liposome. At present, diaspirin crosslinked hemoglobin(DCLHb) by Baxter Healthcare and Hemosol, which is glutaraldehyde intermolecular conjugated hemoglobin by Northfield, are under phase III and phase II clinical studies respectively, so the time will come soon when these oxygen carriers are clinically used.