Blood substitutes that carry oxygen are available for transfusion, but are known to cause dangerous side effects and furthermore typically rely on functioning lungs. "There really is a need for something that you can pull off the shelf, and give to people to pull them through these critical periods," says Ann Weinacker, a lung and critical care doctor at the Stanford Chest Clinic.
Kheir's oxygen-filled microspheres, reported today in Science Translational Medicine, are around three micrometers in diameter and are diluted in a solution commonly used in transfusions so that the particles can flow through even small capillaries in the body. In test tubes, the researchers found the oxygen transferred from the microspheres to hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen, within four seconds. They then tested the microspheres in anesthetized rabbits with blocked windpipes. Although the rabbits were asphyxiated, their bodies were oxygenated and did not show signs of major injury to organs.
More research is necessary to determine how long the therapy can work and for how many patients it could be useful. "Situations where you have a short-term need
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