Aim: In many countries, there is surplus plasma which is thrown out. Due to the high cost of albumin as a pharmaceutical product, it is not widely available for all patients. Therefore, we considered direct preparation of albumin in the plasma bag.
Background: Human plasma has many unique features compared with prepared pharmaceutical products because of its human origin. In countries which do not have a plasma fractionation industry, shortages for plasma products are commonplace.
Methods: Albumin stabiliser was added to the plasma in the bag to stabilised albumin molecule and make it resistant to heat. When the plasma bag was heated, other plasma proteins are irreversibly precipitated and can be separated by centrifugation. Finally, albumin is filtered and pasteurized in plasma bag.
Results: The purity of prepared albumin is >99% and the yield is 21 g per liter of plasma. Polymer content of pasteurized albumin measuring with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was less than 1%.
Conclusions: Since albumin preparation in plasma bag is a simple and cheap technology, it has the potential for use in the production of a safe plasma derived product, although suitability for human use would require appropriate clinical assessment for safety. Using this method, albumin could be prepared from all types of plasma. This method is suggested as a possible method of albumin production for all countries which do not have a plasma fractionation industry and even for the countries with low plasma supplies.
© 2012 The Authors. Transfusion Medicine © 2012 British Blood Transfusion Society.