Infusible Platelet Membrane versus Conventional Platelet Concentrate: Benefits and Disadvantages

Blood transfusion centers are under considerable pressure to produce platelet concentrates with a shelf life limit of 3 to 5 days. Many approaches have been investigated experimentally to produce new hemostatically active platelet products that are capable of long term storage. In this article infusible platelet membrane will be explained as a platelet substitute versus conventional liquid-stored platelet concentrates with regard to their benefits and disadvantages in transfusion medicine. This review shows that lyophilized infusible platelet membrane as a platelet substitute might offer many important benefits over common platelet concentrates with few disadvantages. Infusible platelet membrane may have efficacy, safety and acceptable tolerability without thrombogenecity, immunogenicity or toxicity. The other main benefits of this product are improved shelf life, ease of storage, high-precision dose calculation, easy reformulation, reduced viral and bacterial load, decreased refractoriness to platelet transfusion, reduced contaminating red and white blood cells, reduced side effects due to removal of undesirable effects of intracellular and extracellular proinflamatory mediators and removal of platelet-derived microparticlecs as a source of CD40/CD40L ligands, which can enhance post-transfusion reactions, achieving hemostatic response without increasing the circulating platelet count, not being removed from circulation by immune mechanisms or sepsis and not requiring blood typing. In spite of these benefits, there are still some difficulties in demonstrating its efficacy, short-term circulation and hemostatic function. Therefore, further human clinical studies will be needed to fully define the exact role of infusible platelet membrane in the management of patients with thrombocytopenia.