Nearly 40,000 units of red blood cells (RBCs) are transfused daily in the US alone. The quality of the RBCs being transfused is a major concern due post-transfusion complications. Previously, it has been shown that RBCs stored in FDA approved storage solutions share some similarities to RBCs from patients with diabetes mellitus. In both cases, RBCs must survive in an environment with elevated blood glucose levels. These glucose levels can be detrimental to RBCs due to the accumulation of intracellular sorbitol and resultant loss of deformability. In order to further investigate the effect of glucose on stored RBCs, our group has developed a storage method in which a normoglycemic versions of collection and storage solutions are used to process whole blood and store the RBC. In this study, two major properties of RBC were determined. First, the amount of sorbitol produced during a 35-day storage was quantified. It is well-known that the production of sorbitol is associated with increased oxidative damage, primarily due to consumption of NADPH during the sorbitol pathway, an important factor in the cell anti-oxidation system. Oxidative damage to the RBC membrane typically results in a loss of cellular deformability; therefore, the relative deformability of RBCs stored in euglycemic and hyperglycemic conditions was measured using a multi-channel, 3D printed device. Preliminary results reveal that the RBCs stored in standard storage solutions generate significantly higher levels of sorbitol, over 145.8 ± 43.9 nmol/g Hb (hemoglobin), compared to those RBCs stored in normoglycemic conditions, 16.4 ± 9.1 nmol/g Hb. In addition, the RBC deformability remains unchanged throughout the 35 days of storage in our modified solution, while deformability decreases by 20% when stored in standard solutions.

Quantitative investigation of the effects of glucose on stored red blood cells

251st National Meeting (2016)

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