The survival and function of baboon red blood cells, platelets, and plasma proteins: a review of the experience from 1972 to 2002 at the Naval Blood Research Laboratory, Boston, Massachusetts

Abstract

The studies reported in this monograph were performed between 1972 and 2002 when it was possible to study healthy male and female baboons. A colony of baboons was maintained for 30 years without any adverse events observed in these baboons in the numerous studies that were performed. These protocols were reviewed and approved by the institutional animal care and use committees (IACUC) at the sites where the studies were performed and by the veterinarian services of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, the Office of Naval Research, and the Department of Defense. The physiology of red blood cells (RBCs), platelets (PLTs), and plasma proteins in the baboon was investigated together with the viability and function of preserved RBCs, PLTs, and plasma proteins. These studies in the baboon could not have been performed in normal volunteers and patients. The data obtained have provided critical information to explain the clinical observations reported in normal volunteers and patients after transfusion of fresh and preserved blood products. These studies were supported by the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and the Office of Naval Research. In addition, the support of the late Congressman J. Joseph Moakley from Massachusetts is acknowledged because without his support many of these studies could not have been performed. The authors acknowledge the contributions of the numerous research collaborators identified in the 52 peer-reviewed publications that cite other funding agencies that supported the research that is reported, the editorial assistance of Ms Cynthia Ann Valeri, and the assistance of Ms Deborah Tattersall who prepared the figures and tables reported in this publication.

Transfusion: -80°C Frozen Blood Products Are Safe and Effective in Military Casualty Care

“…The in vivo clearance of activated previously frozen platelets is more rapid,[53, 54] which could be a disadvantage when platelets are transfused for prophylactic purposes, but may be an advantage in the acute treatment of bleeding trauma patients. Frozen platelets are given to trauma patients during the early coagulopathic bleeding phase.…”

Nonsurgical bleeding diathesis in anemic thrombocytopenic patients: role of temperature, red blood cells, platelets, and plasma‐clotting proteins

“…PLTs stored at 22°C for 5 days are at risk for bacteriologic contamination, but the risk is less at 4°C storage. The baboon was also used in studies of the exponential life span of PLTs stored at 4°C because the response of PLTs to preservation injury is similar in baboons and humans 188 . The function of the preserved autologous PLTs stored at 4°C was assessed in the baboon by the reduction of an aspirin‐increased BT.…”

ZOOMICS: Comparative Metabolomics of Red Blood Cells From Old World Monkeys and Humans

“…Among all NHPs, baboons (e.g., Papio anubis, olive baboon) and macaques (e.g., Macaca mulatta, Rhesus macaque, hereon referred to as macaques) are the most frequently studied for biomedical research (VandeBerg et al, 2009;Cox et al, 2013). While both species are equally distant phylogenetically from Homo sapiens (Siepel, 2009) (∼93% of DNA sequence homology) (Rhesus Macaque Genome Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, Gibbs et al, 2007;Cox et al, 2013), baboon size and anatomy makes them more phenotypically similar to humans and, thus, preferred for some comparative research studies, including blood research (Valeri and Ragno, 2006). For example, similar to humans, the hematocrit is 39-45% in macaques and 33-46% in baboons (Valeri et al, 1981b), with corresponding Hb levels of 13.1 ± 0.9 and 12.5 ± 0.2 g/dl in male and female macaques, and 12.6 + 1.2 and 12.5 + 1.0 g/dl in male and female baboons (Harewood et al, 1999), respectively (Chen et al, 2009).…”