High-pressure processing for preservation of blood products†

Abstract

The possibilities of high pressure as a preservation method for human blood products were evaluated by examining the functional properties of blood fractions, after high-pressure processing at conditions which potentially inactivate micro-organisms and viruses. Blood platelets, red blood cells and blood plasma were pressurised at 200–500 MPa at starting temperatures of 18 °C (platelets), 6 °C (cells and plasma) or −10 °C (plasma). These treatments resulted in considerable loss of the functional properties, i.e., shape change and fragmentation of blood platelets, hemolysis and gelation in red blood cells and loss of fVIII activity in blood plasma. Therefore, high-pressure processing at these conditions seems not interesting for preservation of blood products. †Presented at the 42nd EHPRG conference, Lausanne, September 1–4, 2004.