Blood and all its components are vital for the human body, as red blood cells transport oxygen, platelets prevent excessive bleeding, white blood cells fight infections, and nutrients are transported throughout the body via the bloodstream.When a blood sample is taken, all these cells and molecules can be used for research or clinical applications and therefore need to be maintained during their distribution process. To do this, chemical reactions happening naturally between and within all the molecules present in the samples need to be controlled.
Chemical reactions can drastically affect the functions of molecules, and the way they interact with each other and the environment around them. In the case of pharmaceutical products or biological samples, molecular changes can lead to the biologicals losing their viability irreversibly. In the case of blood, this may also lead to the death of cells or the denaturation of important proteins such as Factor VIII. However, although these reactions are affected by many factors, temperature can be controlled. This is the reason why many medicines, vaccines, samples, and other biologicals require to be stored in medical refrigerators, freezers, and ultra-low freezers. The same also applies to various processing steps such as the freezing of blood plasma, as it can increase the yield of certain molecules such as proteins.
To maintain its viability, blood plasma must be frozen and stored at a temperature of -27°C or lower. Medical freezers are used to safely store fresh frozen plasma (FFP), but they are not designed to freeze the samples rapidly. This can be problematic for molecules such as Factor VIII as a slow freezing process may lead to denaturation processes, rendering them ineffective.
B Medical Systems, a world-leading manufacturer and distributor of medical cold chain solutions, has created the CSF61 Contact Shock Freezer to address this issue. This product can rapidly freeze blood plasma ahead of its long-term storage in freezers, increasing yields.
Designed with inclined freezing plates, this product ensures that the plasma is frozen to a core temperature of -30°C and below in the shortest time, thus preventing any substantial loss of Factor VIII, an essential protein involved in blood clotting, in the frozen plasma.
The CSF61 is a medical device that uses a unique technology developed as a result of several years of experience in the contact shock freezing. This patented technological innovation prevents the crazing of bags by not exposing the plasma to extremely low temperatures and provides the homogeneous cooling of bags despite the presence of air bubbles in the bags.
Following the rapid freezing of the blood plasma, FFP is then safely stored in B Medical Systems’ Plasma Storage Freezers which, with their controlled air cooling system, stable temperature distribution and a variety of other featureswhich include extended autonomy and fast temperature recovery even in case of frequent door openings, can guarantee reliable storage conditions at temperatures ranging from -41°C to -32°C.
Finally, healthcare workers can remotely monitor the status of their Contact Shock Freezers, Plasma Storage Freezers, and plasma bags by using the °B Connected software provided by the company for its products. This software, coupled with the audiovisual alarms already present in B Medical Systems’ products, guarantee an extra layer of safety for all the samples stored in these medical freezers, including the FFP coming from the company’s Contact Shock Freezers.
The combination of these medical cold chain solutions created by B Medical Systems already support blood banks, hospitals, clinics and more around the world in ensuring that all fresh frozen plasma is always stored safely, therefore guaranteeingthat both researchers and patients receive the highest quality blood plasma possible.
