Blood Simple..

cy

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Dec 20, 2003
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Because they lack an essential component, blood transfusions may be killing some of the people they are intended to save

Nitric oxide increases the flow of blood to tissues by dilating the arteries that penetrate those tissues. The best known example is the erectile tissue of the ***** (Viagra works by sustaining the signal that the gas gives). However, it is not just penile blood vessels that nitric oxide relaxes. When a red blood cell reaches any tissue in need of oxygen it releases nitric oxide in order to dilate the capillaries. Only then can it deliver its cargo. And that is doubly true of the cells in stored blood since red blood cells become less flexible with age, and thus less able to squish into capillaries. Dr Stamler thus wondered if a lack of nitric oxide was causing the problems associated with transfusions.

What he and his colleagues discovered, and published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was that the amount of nitric oxide in stored blood does indeed decrease—and does so rapidly. Within a day of storage, blood loses 70% of its nitric oxide. After a few days, up to 90% has been lost.

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9941992

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TedTheLed

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Feb 22, 2006
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that's pretty amazing, both the discovery and the fact that no had looked into it before..I hope they get it all figured out before I need a large dose of blood...

(I hear artificial blood is also 'in the pipes', so to speak..)
 
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