Changes of blood oxygen affinity in different CPD solutions during liquid storage

Soft and hard‐packed red blood cells in four different CPD anticoagulant‐preservative solutions were stored with and without added glucose, adenine, and electrolytes. The hemoglobin‐oxygen affinity of the red blood cell concentrates was tested over a six‐week storage period. No single solution conferred better protection than any other against an expected increase in oxygen affinity due to loss of 2,3‐DPG during storage. In all solutions, P 50 at pH 7.4 decreased linearly when measured in a physiological system using CO 2 . After six weeks' storage at 4 C, the normal oxygen‐binding properties of red blood cells could be restored in all instances following incubation for one hour in a rejuvenation solution. By contrast, red blood cell ATP levels were highest when resuspending solutions contained adenine and added glucose, but did not significantly compensate the allosteric role of 2,3‐DPG in regulating oxygen affinity when the latter became depleted.