Development of a hemolysis filter system for the selective removal of free hemoglobin, heme and iron from blood envisaged for use in extracorporeal circuits
File(s)
Article in press
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Hemolysis, the rupture of red blood cells, releases hemoglobin, haem, and redox-active iron into the bloodstream. When the body’s scavenging capacity is overwhelmed, these species can exert deleterious effects, as seen in hemolytic disorders. Hemolysis can also occur in extracorporeal circuits due to mechanical forces acting on blood during circulation. To mitigate these effects, we developed a filter designed for integration into extracorporeal circuits that is designed to capture hemolysis-associated byproducts using immobilised ligands. The filter prototype comprises glyoxal-functionalized agarose beads covalently immobilized with three binding agents: haptoglobin (Hp, binds cell-free hemoglobin [cfHb]), human serum albumin (HSA, binds haem), and desferrioxamine (DFO, binds free iron). Ligand immobilization was optimized to achieve strong covalent attachment to the agarose matrix. Optimized immobilization produced high ligand loading per milliliter of beads (mean ± SD): Hp 74.4 ± 11.7 mg/mL, HSA 84.6 ± 8.2 mg/mL, and DFO 43.3 ± 4.8 mg/mL. In vitro studies showed removal capacities of 12.7 ± 0.2 mg/mL for cfHb, 2708.5 ± 18.5 µg/mL for haem, and 309.7 ± 13.7 µg/mL for iron. The system retained binding activity in plasma and hemolyzed whole blood, and no increase in TAT or D-dimer was detected under the tested ex vivo conditions. These findings demonstrate the potential of this affinity-based filtration system to reduce hemolysis-associated complications in extracorporeal circulation.
Date Issued
2026-07-01
Date Acceptance
2026-06-04
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2026
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s41598-026-57088-y
Subjects
Hemolysis
Extracorporeal blood purification
Affinity filtration
Hemocompatibility biomaterials
Cell-free hemoglobin removal
Cardiopulmonary bypass
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2026-07-01