Old blood, new blood or better stored blood?

Abstract

Blood transfusion has controversial origins shrouded in legend. In ancient times blood was considered “vital lymph” - “sanguis vita vitae” - and was probably used as a potion or a tonic, and already the possibility of transferring it from one body to another for therapeutic or rejuvenating purposes had been taken into consideration1. However, it was only in 1628, the year in which the circulation of blood was scientifically first demonstrated, that transfusing blood became a concrete possibility. The subsequent “experimental” period, a mixture of successes and failures, extended from 1628 to the end of the XVII century and was followed by the so-called “therapeutic” period from the mid 1800s to the present1. After the anatomic demonstration of blood circulation, nearly 300 years passed before Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups, the pharmacologist Luigi Sabbatani discovered the anticoagulant properties of sodium citrate1, and, in 1915, the first red blood cell (RBC) storage solution (a mixture of citrate and glucose) was developed for storing rabbit RBC for use in a heterophile agglutination test for syphilis2.