Gas-filled microparticles can quickly oxygenate blood

The microparticles consist of a single layer of lipids (fatty molecules) that surround a tiny pocket of oxygen gas and are delivered in a liquid solution. In an article in the 27 June issue of Science Translational Medicine, John Kheir, managing director of the Department of Cardiology at Boston Children’s Hospital, and colleagues reported that an infusion of these microparticles into animals with low blood oxygen levels restored blood oxygen saturation to near-normal levels within seconds. 

When the trachea was completely blocked, the infusion kept the animals alive for 15 minutes without a single breath and reduced the incidence of cardiac arrest and organ injury.

The microparticle solutions are portable and could stabilise patients in emergency situations, buying time for paramedics, emergency clinicians or intensive care clinicians to more safely place a breathing tube or perform other life-saving therapies, said Kheir in a statement.

‘This is a short-term oxygen substitute — a way to safely inject oxygen gas to support patients during a critical few minutes,’ he said. ‘Eventually, this could be stored in syringes on every code cart in a hospital, ambulance or transport helicopter to help stabilise patients who are having difficulty breathing.’