Lessons from sheep models of transfusion

Abstract

Background Animal models have been a valuable tool for research into blood products and outcomes of blood transfusions. Small animal models have been applied extensively and large animal models less frequently. This review describes the experience and details the findings from a recent series of in vivo sheep transfusion models. Aims & Method To discuss: (i) the benefits of sheep as a large animal transfusion model; and (ii) review conclusions from a series of sheep transfusion models. Results & Discussion Similarities in size, anatomy and physiology of sheep compared to humans have supported the use of sheep to model a wide range of human diseases, enabled continuous physiological monitoring using standard human techniques, and the collection of multiple and serial samples. Conclusion The findings discussed demonstrate that sheep are effective models of the blood donor, donations and of transfusion recipients. Importantly, they also define limitations of ovine models, which need to be considered when designing in vivo sheep models of transfusion.

Effect of ozonation on resistance of ovine and human erythrocytes to hypothermic storage

“…Ovine blood is used by veterinarians not only for transfusion therapy (Wain et al, 1985;Chandler et al, 1998;Sousa et al, 2014), but also by scientists for modeling transfusion conditions (Simonova et al, 2014;Fung et al, 2016) because in the animals the anatomy, hemodynamic and microcirculatory characteristics and red blood cells' lifespan are very similar to those of humans. Ovine red blood cells are also used in immunological studies to test the rosette reactions with T lymphocytes (Wybran et al, 1972;Ladics, 2007;McAllister et al, 2017).…”