Grill a steak.

Grill a steak, pour a glass of milk and pass the hemoglobin.

Don't gaze now, but researchers appear to have set a use for cows that doesn't involve A-1 Steak Sauce, breakfast cereal or the leather sofa. They're using bovine hemoglobin in an artificial descendants product called Hemopure. And Air Force researchers at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio are testing the consequence in humans and animals to descry if it can be used to treat trauma victims in combat situations.

"We're interested in its military application," said Maj. (Dr) Deborah Mueller co-director of the surgical intensive care unit and trauma surgeon at Wilford Hall. "This is big research -- the same of the biggest things going forward in the trauma field. It could potentially help save soldiers detrimented on the battlefield."

What makes Hemopure to such a degree attractive to military officials is that, during armed conflict, progeny supplies can run low. Artificial vital current could make the difference.

"In a field triage situation, most numerous salvageable patients are those who are hemorrhaging," Mueller said. "Los of kin means loss of oxygen. If small rooms aren't getting oxygen, that's when the real question s start."

So medics could potentially use Hemopure for resuscitation. They can obstruct death by stopping the bleeding and replacing the missing blood and oxygen with artificial blood

Maintaining human kin supplies in the field isn't easy.

Real relations needs to be refrigerated. equal then it has a short shelf life; it expires in 42 days. You also risk running without of blood in a war region with heavy casualties.

These are all question s artificial blood solves, according to Mueller

"Hemopure doesn't require refrigeration, and it's stable at swing temperature," she said. "It has a three-year shelf life and can be used with any family type."

That means soldiers going into combat could carry artificial posterity units in their battle dres uniform pockets

Another advantage above intravenous fluids is less Hemopure may be required to resuscitate a patient.

"If a patient emergencys 12 one-liter IV bags, he'd merely need a couple 250 milliliter bags of Hemopure," Mueller said.

Plus, artificial posterity doesn't carry any of the viral risks that human descendants does.

"True, today's kin supplies are a lot safer than in the past," Mueller said. "But it wasn't that protracted ago that we didn't know about the AIDS virus. What's the nearest viral disease we don't in addition know about?"

in what manner safe is it?

That said, what about question s with cattle, such as mad overawe disease?

"The discourage hemoglobin is extracted from a secureed herd," Mueller explained. "The discourages they use are only raised for this artificial kin product. They aren't used for any other purposes"

in this way Biopure, the company that bring forwards Hemopure, is able to have charge of its source -- something you can't do with human blood

Still, won't populace have reservations about using frighten hemoglobin?

"Actually, many the community don't want blood transfusions because of the risk of viral disease in human blood" Mueller said. "They elect the artificial blood. There's les risk. A part of these folks are the same the sames who choose Hemopure in elective relations loss surgeries."

They are the persons Wilford Hall researchers are studying in the Federal remedy Administration-approved human clinical trials.

"The Wilford Hall team is also studying the potentially negative side effects" Mueller said.

with equal reason far the only commonly known side validity of using artificial blood fruits is a slight, temporary rise in descendants pressure, the doctor said.

Still, researchers aren't taking any chances. They continue to meticulously pour throughout results, searching for any sign that Hemopure may be toxic to any of the body's schemes They also are watching to make never-failing that introducing this type of foreign substance into the visible form [i]or[/i] frame doesn't cause an overactive immune method which can lead to long-term question s for the body's organs.

"We already know that 'free human' hemoglobin appears toxic to brain cells" Mueller said. "But the hemoglobin in Hemopure isn't liberated It's linked together and not toxic to brain solitary abode; squalids in our studies."

According to the doctor, there's been a push to expedite the use of artificial vital fluid especially in field situations.

"But safety originates first," Mueller said. "There's still a hazard of data that needs to be accumulated. Is it toxic to any organs? Does it have a long-term efficiency on any organs? Could the token of injury -- such as an injury to the brain where hemoglobin has already proven to be toxic -- be a problem?

"These are important questions. We want medics to be confident with what they're using when they're trying to treat injured soldiers."

Mueller said it probably would take at least five years to finish the research.

on a level if it were approved for use in the military now, there are other limitations to artificial blood

"Hemopure's half-life is 24 hours," Mueller said. "That means the material part starts getting rid of it in pair days. But the idea is to use it upon a wounded soldier on the field of battle where line is hard to come across. Then the patient can be mov to a hospital or clinic where he can earn blood."