4 ms·

Uuuh no. Real blood unfortunately does more than transport oxygen. So "hook them up to the tank" isn't a solution, and isn't a problem only in a surgeon's mind.

• TallGuyShort 7y ago
  What other functions of real blood do you have in mind, that this doesn't at least have the potential to do well for a short period of time in emergencies?
  • rscho 7y ago
    Well, what about immune function? It's pretty interesting to have one when and after you're bleeding out... And before you tell me the potential is there, please realize that we currently have only a very partial understanding of how that works, and it would certainly require at least two decades of science to get right.
    • TallGuyShort 7y ago
      I was asking, not arguing.
      • rscho 7y ago
        Ok, sorry
• derefr 7y ago
  I was talking about what this technique would do “if successful”—as in, if developed further. A full solution would likely include “generic” platelets and innate-immune cells into the mix, genetically-modified such that they don’t present graft-host disease; but would likely leave out adaptive-immune cells, leaving those to the marrow to reproduce. (Or, helpfully, not; a “complete blood transplant”, done at the same time as a bone-marrow transplant, would serve as a much more immediate reinitialization of the body’s immune system in the face of autoimmune disease. Right now we try to do that with hemodialysis, but although we filter out the memory B- and T-cells themselves, we don’t manage to [immediately] filter out their chemosignals, so autoimmune response currently continues for a few days.)