Channichthyidae rare and defunct. Oxygen is dissolved in the plasma and transported throughout the body without the hemoglobin protein. The fish can live without hemoglobin because of their low metabolic rates and the high solubility of oxygen in water at the low temperatures of their environment (the solubility of a gas tends to increase as temperature decreases). However, the oxygen-carrying capacity of their blood is less than 10% that of their relatives with hemoglobin. Myoglobin, the oxygen-binding protein used in muscles, is absent from all icefish skeletal muscles. In 10 species, myoglobin is found in the heart muscle, specifically ventricles. Loss
Red blood cell loss, such as prior to an operation. Before blood is given, a small sample of the recipient's blood is tested with the transfusion in a process known as cross-matching. In addition to the transmission of infection, certain types of transfusion reaction. In 2008 it was reported that human embryonic stem cells had been successfully coaxed into becoming red blood cells in the lab. The difficult step was to induce the cells to eject their nucleus; this was achieved by growing the cells on stromal cells from the bone marrow. It is hoped that these artificial red blood cells can eventually