Impact of blood manufacturing and donor characteristics on membrane water permeability and in vitro quality parameters during hypothermic storage of red blood cells

Several factors have been proposed to influence the red blood cell storage lesion including storage duration, blood component manufacturing methodology, and donor characteristics [1,18]. The objectives of this study were to determine the impact of manufacturing method and donor characteristics on water permeability and membrane quality parameters.Red blood cell units were obtained from volunteer blood donors and grouped according to the manufacturing method and donor characteristics of sex and age. Membrane water permeability and membrane quality parameters, including deformability, hemolysis, osmotic fragility, hematologic indices, supernatant potassium, and supernatant sodium, were determined on day 5 ± 2, day 21, and day 42. Regression analysis was applied to evaluate the contribution of storage duration, manufacturing method, and donor characteristics on storage lesion.This study found that units processed using a whole blood filtration manufacturing method exhibited significantly higher membrane water permeability throughout storage compared to units manufactured using red cell filtration. Additionally, significant differences in hemolysis, supernatant potassium, and supernatant sodium were seen between manufacturing methods, however there were no significance differences between donor age and sex groups.Findings of this study suggest that the membrane-related storage lesion is initiated prior to the first day of storage with contributions by both blood manufacturing process and donor variability. The findings of this work highlight the importance of characterizing membrane water permeability during storage as it can be a predictor of the biophysical and chemical changes that affect the quality of stored red blood cells during hypothermic storage.     

Anaerobic digestion of starch-polyvinyl alcohol biopolymer packaging: biodegradability and environmental impact assessment

The digestibility of a starch-polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) biopolymer insulated cardboard coolbox was investigated under a defined anaerobic digestion (AD) system with key parameters characterized. Laboratory results were combined with industrial operational data to develop a site-specific life cycle assessment (LCA) model. Inoculated with active bacterial trophic groups, the anaerobic biodegradability of three starch-PVOH biopolymers achieved 58-62%. The LCA modeling showed that the environmental burdens of the starch-PVOH biopolymer packaging under AD conditions on acidification, eutrophication, global warming and photochemical oxidation potential were dominated by atmospheric emissions released from substrate degradation and fuel combustion, whereas energy consumption and infrastructure requirements were the causes of abiotic depletion, ozone depletion and toxic impacts. Nevertheless, for this bio-packaging, AD of the starch-PVOH biopolymer combined with recycling of the cardboard emerged as the environmentally superior option and optimization of the energy utilization system could bring further environmental benefits to the AD process.