‘Worm’ gel may help preserve blood and tissue

Friday February 5th, 2016

A new way of storing biological tissue and blood samples could help transform blood transfusion, researchers say today.

By using blocks of copolymer hydrogel, which form a soft 3D network of nanometre-sized “worms” in water, researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and Warwick, England believe they can prevent damage caused to red blood cells that have been frozen at low temperatures for long periods of time.

Writing in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the team says that because blood can only be stored for up to 42 days without using cryopreservation, adding potent cryopreservatives causes undesirable side-effects and while thawing puts stress on the cells.

But this new method of preservation can change that, said Steve Armes, Professor of polymer and colloid chemistry, at the University of Sheffield.

“Our new material is a biocompatible long-chain molecule that self-assembles in water to give a network of worm-like particles that form a soft gel. This provides a suitable matrix for freezing red blood cells for their long-term storage,” he explained.

“The most important property is its cryoprotection performance. This is the first demonstration that a wholly synthetic formulation can be used to achieve efficient cryopreservation of red blood cells.”

When used alone, the worm-like particles do not protect the cells, but when they are combined with a biocompatible polymer that prevents ice crystal formation, the researchers discovered that up to two-thirds of the red blood cells survive after they have been thawed.

They believe the ‘worm gel’ could also be a useful product for tissue engineering.

Angewandte Chemie February 2016

Tags: General Health | UK News

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