Synthetic Red Blood Cells From Lipid Encapsulated Hemoglobin

Synthetic red blood cells have been formed by microencapsulating hemoglobin solutions in lipid mixtures. The synthetic cells are stable, being somewhat stronger than normal red blood cells, can be tailored to have the same electrophoretic mobilities, and are somewhat smaller than normal red cells. They exhibit essentially the same oxygen and carbon dioxide carrying characteristics as normal red cells and do not appear to interact with natural blood in-vivo. In experiments involving complete replacement of natural blood in test animals, life has been sustained and no side effects have been observed.