There are more than 7000 rare diseases, and more are discovered every day.
Many of these diseases are treated — or, at least, their symptoms — with the help of plasma therapies.
Plasma therapies are made from the plasma collected from voluntary donors through a process called plasmapheresis.
Once plasma samples are obtained, they are advanced through a process called fractionation.
Fractionation isolates and concentrates the proteins on which different therapies are based.
Therefore, the history of donating plasma can be broadly described as the sum of the histories of plasmapheresis and fractionation.
Donating plasma: a brief history
Plasmapheresis
Plasmapheresis is the process of collecting blood, separating plasma from it, and returning the rest of its constituents to the donor.
Phlebotomy — the practice of puncturing a vein to draw blood or introduce a liquid — dates back to the 16th century. Transfusion is also not a recent achievement. However, it was always considered extremely risky — and hence rarely tried on humans — let alone extremely inefficient. Until 1913.
In 1913, John Abel and Leonard Rowntree envisioned a method of collecting plasma — well known for its remarkable properties — that was much more safe, efficient, and could be done more frequently without harming the donor. They called it plasmapheresis.
Abel, Rowntree, and his team claimed that large amounts of plasma could be extracted from dogs provided that the rest of the blood’s constituents were returned.
Several researchers approved of plasmapheresis and conducted a study on a small group of human subjects during the Second World War.
In fact, Josep Grifols — the founder of the plasma industry giant (Grifols) — tested it on himself! Later, he proved Abel and Rowntree’s theory by conducting a study involving 350 donors, systematically demonstrating the efficacy and safety of plasmapheresis.
Gradually, Grifols perfected his process, publishing the results in the British Medical Journal in 1952.
The process has, of course, benefited from giant leaps in technology. Its safety, efficiency, and efficacy are even more superior today. The basic concept, however, has not changed much.
Fractionation
Your plasma is mostly (more than 98%) composed of water while the rest is proteins. Many rare diseases, such as Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency, are caused by the deficiency of one or more of these proteins — in the case of Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency, the Alpha-1 antitrypsin.
Essentially, plasma therapies are just concentrated forms of these proteins, which when taken make up for the deficiency, enabling the immune systems of patients to function properly.
The isolation and concentration are achieved with fractionation.
Fractionation is widely used in science and technology to separate mixtures though it was first used to separate plasma during the second World War.
Harvard’s Dr. Edwin Cohn devised what is now called the Cohn fractionation process in which the acidity, alcohol content, and temperature of a plasma pool is modified causing the different proteins of different properties to separate from each other into fractions.
Cohn first used the technique to extract albumin, the most abundant protein in plasma. The therapy he produced was used to treat soldiers suffering from shocks and burns.
Gradually, the technique, like plasmapheresis, immensely benefited from technological advancements: today, fractionation can extract and purify more than 20 plasma proteins.
Though, much like plasmapheresis, fractionation’s basic principle has not changed much.
Learn more about plasma. Visit www.iplasma.life
