Due to ever-increasing paranoia about the transmission of hepatitis and AIDS via blood transfusions and the
frequent difficulty of procuring matching blood donors for patients, researchers have been working at a feverish
pace to produce disease-free and easy-to-use blood substitutes. The difficulty most synthetic blood researches
have had is in formulating a substance that combines qualities of sterility, high capacity for carrying oxygen to
body tissues, and versatility within the human body. Three major substitute technologies have been developed
to date; each has certain advantages and shortcomings.
“Red blood,” the first of the blood substitute technologies, is derived from hemoglobin which has been recycled
from old, dead, or worn-out red blood cells and modified so that it can carry oxygen outside the red blood cell.
Hemoglobin, a complex protein, is the blood’s natural oxygen carrier and is attractive to scientists for use in
synthetic blood because of its oxygen-carrying capacity. However, hemoglobin can sometimes constitute a twofold threat to humans when it is extracted from the red blood cell and introduced to the body in its naked form.
First, hemoglobin molecules are rarely sterile and often remain contaminated by viruses to which they were
exposed in the cell. Second, naked hemoglobin is extremely dangerous to the kidneys, causing blood flow at
these organs to shut down and leading, ultimately, to renal failure. Additional problems arise from the fact that
hemoglobin is adapted to operate optimally within the intricate environment of the red blood cell. Stripped of the
protection of the cell, the hemoglobin molecule tends to suffer breakdown within several hours. Although
modification has produced more durable hemoglobin molecules which do not cause renal failure, undesired
side effects continue to plague patients and hinder the development of hemoglobin-based blood substitutes.
Another synthetic blood alternative, “white blood”, is dependent on laboratory synthesized chemicals called
perfluorocarbons (PFCs). Unlike blood, PFCs are clear oil like liquids, yet they are capable of absorbing
quantities of oxygen up to 50% of their volume, enough of an oxygen carrying potential for oxygen-dependent
organisms to survive submerged in the liquid for hours by “breathing” it. Although PFCs imitate real blood by
effectively absorbing oxygen, scientists are primarily interested in them as constituents of blood substitutes
because they are inherently safer to use than hemoglobin-based substitutes. PFCs do not interact with any
chemicals in the body and can be manufactured in near-perfect sterility. The primary pitfall of PFCs is in their
tendency to form globules in plasma that can block circulation. Dissolving PFCs in solution can mitigate
globulation; however, this procedure also seriously curtails the PFCs’ oxygen capacity.
The final and perhaps most ambitious attempt to form a blood substitute involves the synthesis of a modified
version of human hemoglobin by genetically-altered bacteria. Fortunately, this synthetic hemoglobin seems to
closely mimic the qualities of sterility, and durability outside the cellular environment, and the oxygen-carrying
efficiency of blood. Furthermore, researchers have found that if modified hemoglobin genes are added to
bacterial DNA, the bacteria will produce the desired product in copious quantities. This procedure is extremely
challenging, however, because it requires the isolation of the human gene for the production of hemoglobin,
and the modification of the gene to express a molecule that works without support from a living cell.
While all the above technologies have serious drawbacks and difficulties, work to perfect an ideal blood
substitute continues. Scientists hope that in the near future safe synthetic blood transfusions may ease blood
shortages and resolve the unavailability of various blood types.
It can be inferred from the passage that the difficulty of producing an ideal blood substitute is compounded by
all of the following EXCEPT:
Section: Verbal Reasoning
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