Artificial cell for disease transmission, artificial red blood cells are desired because they eliminate drawbacks associated with allogenic blood transfusions such as blood typing, immune reactions and its short storage life of 42 days. A hemoglobin substitute may be stored at room temperature and not under refrigeration for more than a year. Attempts have been made to develop a complete working red blood cell which comprises carbonic not only an oxygen carrier but also the enzymes associated with the cell. The first attempt was made in 1957 by replacing the red blood cell membrane by an ultrathin polymeric membrane which was followed
Red blood cell oxygen has been released the resulting deoxyhemoglobin is of a dark red burgundy color. However, blood can appear bluish when seen through the vessel wall and skin. Pulse oximetry takes advantage of the hemoglobin color change to directly measure the arterial blood oxygen saturation using colorimetric techniques. Hemoglobin also has a very high affinity for carbon monoxide, forming carboxyhemoglobin which is a very bright red in color. Flushed, confused patients with a saturation reading of 100% on pulse oximetry are sometimes found to be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Having oxygen-carrying proteins inside specialized cells (as opposed to oxygen carriers