Stored blood is usually kept just above the freezing point, allowing it to be ready for use for up to six weeks after it was donated. This six week limitation is one of the reasons for constant blood drives, that are accompanied by cookies and apple juice. Storing blood for longer periods means you have to actually freeze it, but freezing damages cellular structures unless a protective substance such as glycerol, an ice recrystallization inhibitor, is used. The problem with glycerol is that it has to be separated from donor blood before a transfusion, a process that can take about an hour, which is often too long for emergency situations.
A collaboration between Canadian and Japanese scientists has been trying different protectant additives, specifically glucose-based molecules (O-aryl-glycosides), to see which may turn out to be better than glycerol at cryopreserving blood. They identified two molecules that effectively impede ice formation when storing blood as cold as -80 degrees Celsius while reducing the amount of glycerol used from 40% down to between 10 and 15%. This would allow the glycerol to be separated much faster and the transfusion readied sooner.
Study in journal ACS Omega: O-Aryl-Glycoside Ice Recrystallization Inhibitors as Novel Cryoprotectants: A Structure–Function Study…
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