Are all blood fractions taken from blood that has been donated by people?
Yes, Linda, that is true.

Is there such a thing as synthetic fractions?
No, they haven't come up with those yet.

What treatment can be used instead of blood transfusions when someone has leukemia ?
This requires some skill and creativity. Chemotherapy may be modified (small doses), transfusion thresholds may be lowered, and other means to prevent bleeding may be used.

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Joseph T. Malak, MD

thankyou for answers to my questions but i am a little confused as i was informed by Jgrossberg;12449 that some synthetic fractions available. a bit of a puzzle this one, either there is or there isn't? please help!

The only synthetic fractions currently available and in clinical use are recombinant (genetically engineered) versions of clotting factors VII, VIII and IX, to control bleeding in patients with inherited blood disorders such as hemophilia, as well as (in the case of recombinant Factor VIIa) trauma, obstetric and surgical patients. Work is being done on a synthetic albumin, and an albumin-heme complex protein, but I understand these are still some way off being available in clinical practice.
See http://www.gtc-bio.com/products.html.

thankyou for your information regarding synthetic fractions. however just wondering if joseph.t.malak;md would appreciate these details as he is under the impression that at this moment in time there is no such thing as synthetic fractions. thankyou once again, much appreciated. linda edmenson

Informaticus is right! Interesting info on the albumin.

I was thinking in terms of major fractions [red cells, plasma, and buffy coat].

Perhaps a stem cell transplant could be construed as a synthetic fraction of sorts. Recently, gene therapy has been used to treat Diamond Blackfan anemia, in which a major fraction of the blood (red cells), is not produced. This may be stretching the definition of "synthetic."

Beside individual clotting factors, a number of hormones and cytokines (e.g. insulin, human growth hormone, oprelvekin, erythropoietin,...) that appear in plasma have been produced with recombinant DNA. We're kind of getting down to fractions of fractions of fractions...

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Joseph T. Malak, MD

I do not think it will be long until products are produced synthetically...for instance insulin was once derived from animals or humans but is now completely synthetic.

As regards Leukemia there is an article in one the the Watchtower/Awakes regarding bone marrow donation because this is needed in some cases of Leukemia...it pointed out that bone marrow is actually a tissue and not a blood component, therefore would be acceptable...depending on conscience of course because as with all tissue it could contain a small amount of blood.

thankyou for this information i will try to find this information and read article, much appreciated.

I should like to correct my statement, above, about the availability of synthetic albumin. Several pharmaceutical companies are now marketing a recombinant version of human serum albumin. (See, for example: Novozymes | Bioprocessing | Formulation | Recombumin®, and Human Serum Albumin, Recombinant Proteins, Recombinant human serum albumin)

if you wanted to raise your blood albumin levels, an anesthetist on here advocated taking the whites from two eggs, three times a day

due to its thickness though, this may cause some nausea.

don't consume all the yolks because they will increase your cholesterol levels