The goal of this project is to develop a novel, low cost blood storage system that will and deliver red blood cells (RBC) of higher quality thereby reducing the harmful consequences of transfusion therapy. RBC are depleted of O2 and CO2 and stored under depleted condition. The stored RBC have shown higher efficacy and lower toxicity. The product is designed to be easily integrated into existing blood bank operating practices with minimal alteration in procedures, equipment or cost. The objective of this contract is to design and test the feasibility of a prototype pre-storage O2/CO2 depletion device and anaerobic storage bag capable of meeting a the cost constraints of a commercial release product (cost and product shelf life). A prototype anaerobic red blood cell conversion kit will be fabricated and benchtested.
