Isoosmotic sucrose, adenine, inosine media for preservation of blood.

In order to manipulate red cells to remove additives and metabolites prior to transfusion after prolonged preservation, osmotic fragility must be depressed. In isoosmotic sucrose solutions, the osmotic hemolysis curve is shifted to the left (less fragile) within several hours at 37 degrees C and within several days at 4 degrees C. However, hyperosmolar solution induced hemolysis when 0.9% NaCl was added after preservation. In isoosmotic sucrose solutions, the order of effectiveness in maintaining intracellular ATP content was: adenine plus inosine greater than inosine alone greater than adenine alone greater than no addition. The same order was also seen in depression of the increase in osmotic fragility during storage for 8 weeks. Formation of too stable erythrocytes to osmotic fragility and accordingly too low filtrability was prevented by the addition of appropriate amounts of physiological saline. Media containing isotonic sucrose, adenine and inosine depressed the increase in osmotic fragility during preservation for 6 weeks at 4 degrees C. ATP and 2,3-DPG levels were also better maintained than in various media containing a small amount of adenine. This finding with the former which indicated that the media containing isoosmotic sucrose, adenine and inosine prolonged posttransfusional viability of rabbit cells very much, suggests that these media are worthy of further investigation, since excess metabolites can be easily removed before transfusion.