Red Blood Cell Substitutes: Liposome Encapsulated Hemoglobin and Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as Oxygen Carriers

Abstract

The established blood donation and transfusion system has contributed a lot to human health and welfare. For this system to function properly it requires sufficient number of healthy do nors which is not always possible. Pakistan is among low income countries where majority of the collection comes from families’ replacement donations which are often used to treat preg nancy related complications and severe anemia in children. Moreover, blood transfusion has its own complications. To address such challenges and to support the present blood donation and transfusion system, present study was focused on the development of artificial blood (RBC substitutes) which can be given to all blood types when it is hard to find donors and to prevent the spread of blood borne disease at the time of emergency. In the current research we combined the strategies of conjugated hemoglobin and encapsulated hemoglobin to develop RBCs substitutes that would carry: hemoglobin as oxygen carrier, iron oxide nanoparticles conjugated with hemoglobin to prevent the rapid release of hemoglobin into the blood stream and also to act as the source of iron to regenerate the iron pool of the body and liposomes to shield the internal environment from external environment. Nanoparticles were incubated with hemoglobin solution and encapsulated in liposomes to make final product. Final product was functionally tested by converting deoxyhemoglobin to oxyhemoglobin. In the end it was concluded that liposome encapsulated Hb-MNPs conjugates as oxygen carriers has the poten tial to work in a similar way RBCs work, but further studies are needed to stabilize the struc ture and improve circulation in the circulatory system