# Fractionation of Aged RBCs Based on Hemoglobin Content

> **NIH NIH R01** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $623,484

## Abstract

Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is clinically used to treat hemodynamic instability and O2 carrying
deficits in patients with acute blood loss, and patients with chronic anemia caused by bone marrow
failure/suppression (1-4). Currently, cold storage of human RBCs (hRBCs) can preserve hRBCs for a
maximum of six weeks (i.e. 42 days) (5). This relatively short ex vivo storage length has been set by the United
States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) based on the post transfusion viability (PTV) of stored hRBCs
at 24 hours, which must be greater than or equal to 75 ± 9% (7) and the percent hemolysis of stored hRBCs
which must be less than 1% (8). Despite widespread clinical use, stored RBCs face two major problems,
namely: the steadily decreasing supply of RBC units (1, 9, 10), and the questionable clinical safety of RBCs
stored for extended periods of time (11-17). The supply of RBCs is expected to diminish as the population
base ages and demand increases (1, 9, 10, 18). As stored RBCs age, they undergo biochemical and
biophysical changes that are often referred to as the storage lesion (8, 19-24).
 It is well known that upon transfusion of stored RBCs, there is a population of RBCs (i.e. healthy RBCs)
that circulate for more than 24 hours, and another smaller population (i.e. damaged RBCs) that are cleared
within 24 hours post transfusion (54). This population of cells destined to be cleared quickly can be higher than
25% in units stored for a mean of 30 days. Therefore, it could be clinically beneficial if the damaged
RBCs in any unit of RBCs could be separated leaving a population of only healthy RBCs behind for
transfusion. When a recipient is transfused with a dose of RBCs that overwhelms their circulatory system's
ability to compensate for the increased intravascular volume, heart failure can ensue. This condition is known
as Transfusion Associated Circulatory Overload (TACO). It is the second leading cause of death related to
transfusion reported to the FDA (106). We hypothesize that reducing the amount of soon to be cleared RBCs
from older units by 25% and fresher units by 15% will reduce the volume of transfused product, thereby
reducing the risk of death from TACO. In fact, as the incidence of TACO is usually quite underestimated as it is
often not appreciated as a transfusion reaction, and as the transfusion community has undertaken several
large scale initiatives to reduce the incidence of the most common cause of death as reported to the FDA
(transfusion related acute lung injury, TRALI), TACO will likely surpass TRALI as the leading cause of
transfusion related mortality (52). Thus, taking steps to reduce the incidence of TACO will have far
reaching benefits for many recipients of RBCs.
 Utilizing technology that exploits the intrinsic magnetization of the deoxygenated form of Hb inside RBC's
in an applied magnetic field, the Yazer, Chalmers and Zborowski laboratories (6) demonstrated that RBCs lose
magnetization during storage, w...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9861260
- **Project number:** 5R01HL131720-04
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** JEFFREY John CHALMERS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $623,484
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-01-01 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9861260

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9861260, Fractionation of Aged RBCs Based on Hemoglobin Content (5R01HL131720-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9861260. Licensed CC0.

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