[IM_YOUR_GOD]

This may seem like something out of a science fiction movie: researchers have designed microparticles that can be injected directly into the bloodstream to quickly oxygenate your body, even if you can't breathe anymore. It's one of the best medical breakthroughs in recent years, and one that could save millions of lives every year.
The invention, developed by a team at Boston Children's Hospital, will allow medical teams to keep patients alive and well for 15 to 30 minutes despite major respiratory failure. This is enough time for doctors and emergency personnel to act without risking a heart attack or permanent brain injuries in the patient.

The solution has already been successfully tested on animals under critical lung failure. When the doctors injected this liquid into the patient's veins, it restored oxygen in their blood to near-normal levels, granting them those precious additional minutes of life.

Particles of fat and oxygen

The particles are composed of oxygen gas pocketed in a layer of lipids, a natural molecule that usually stores energy or serves as a component to cell membranes. Lipids can be waxes, some vitamins, monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, phospholipids, or—as in this case—fats.

These fatty oxygen particles are about two to four micrometers in size. They are suspended in a liquid solution that can be easily carried and used by paramedics, emergency crews and intensive care personnel. This seemingly magic elixir carries "three to four times the oxygen content of our own red blood cells."

Similar solutions have failed in the past because they caused gas embolism, rather than oxygenating the cells. According to John Kheir, MD at the Department of Cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital, they solved the problem by using deformable particles, rather than bubbles:

QUOTE

We have engineered around this problem by packaging the gas into small, deformable particles. They dramatically increase the surface area for gas exchange and are able to squeeze through capillaries where free gas would get stuck.

Kheir had the idea of an injected oxygen solution started after he had to treat a little girl in 2006. Because of a lung hemorrhage caused by pneumonia, the girl sustained severe brain injuries which, ultimately, lead to her death before the medical team could place her in a heart-lung machine.

Soon after, Kheir assembled a team of chemical engineers, particle scientists, and medical doctors to work on this idea, which had promising results from the very beginning:

QUOTE

Some of the most convincing experiments were the early ones. We drew each other's blood, mixed it in a test tube with the microparticles, and watched blue blood turn immediately red, right before our eyes.

It sounds like magic, but it was just the start of what, after years of investigation, became this real life-giving liquid in a bottle.

This is what the future is about. And it's a beautiful one indeed, one that is arriving earlier than we ever could have expected. I wonder if this would find its way to other uses. I can see it as an emergency injection in a spaceship, for example. But what about getting a shot for diving? [ScienceDaily]




http://gizmodo.com/5921868/scientists-inve...thout-breathing

This post has been edited by IM_YOUR_GOD on Monday, Jul 2 2012, 14:43

[freak2121]

Inhaling*
You'll still need to exhale CO2.

[IM_YOUR_GOD]

It would take 20 to 30 minutes before the CO2 to becomes dangerously high.
it only takes 3-4 minutes of no oxygen before brain death.

[finn4life]

QUOTE (IM_YOUR_GOD @ Sunday, Jul 1 2012, 10:21)

It would take 20 to 30 minutes before the CO2 to becomes dangerously high. it only takes 3-4 minutes of no oxygen before brain death.

Yep, so they would still need to act quickly, it's a lot better than what we have now in terms of keeping people breathing, good to see we are still improving.
I guess they can keep those people with lung cancer going for an extra little while.

[K^2]

This would require enormous pressure within the vesicles. Though, given their size, surface tension might provide sufficient pressure. That's a very interesting idea. I was thinking about something like that just the other day, but I was thinking of using something like synthetic hemaglobin or w/e to bind the oxygen. If this article is correct on the content, this is way better.

I wonder if this can work as an emergency under-water oxygen supply. I'm going to do a bit more digging to see if I can find some actual numbers.

Edit: I'm getting something on the order of 10MPa. That's almost as good as a diving tank. (Up to ~20MPa) Assuming the later has normal 20% air mixture, and this new liquid being 70% oxygen, this is actually better per-volume, and much, much better per weight. The tanks be heavy. So for something like a 5 minutes emergency diving supply, this really might work.

Another edit: If my math is right, 5 minute supply would be just 22cc. That's, like, half a shot. I'm probably over-estimating the pressure above, because this is way more than 4x the blood's own capacity.

Still, it suggests that this is definitely the right approach for getting a ton of oxygen suspended in a liquid.

Hm. Maybe this can work for hydrogen storage as well. Would make fantastic fuel. Fatty lipids + H2.

This post has been edited by K^2 on Sunday, Jul 1 2012, 00:34

[nightwalker83]

QUOTE (freak2121 @ Sunday, Jul 1 2012, 09:49)

Inhaling* You'll still need to exhale CO2.

You never know they may come up with a way to make people more like trees! If that happens I may just hang around.