BioTime Inc. presented laboratory results Tuesday that showedHextend, its blood substitute solution designed for low-temperaturesurgical procedures, prolonged the time animals can be maintained attemperatures close to freezing.Paul Segall, the Berkeley, Calif., company's president and chiefexecutive officer, said that using total blood replacement with Hextend,chilled hamsters were revived after five hours, dogs after more thanfour and a half hours, and baboons after three hours of deephypothermia. Minimum body temperatures were between 1 and 3degrees Celsius.The data were presented at the Experimental Biology `94 meeting inAnaheim, Calif., where, today, BioTime will discuss results of usingHextend to replace up to 80 percent of the circulating blood of rats atnormal body temperature."We've developed a solution for an ice-cold blood substitute which wethink can extend the time for a wide variety of surgical procedures onthe heart and brain," Segall told BioWorld. "In terms of artificialplasma, we think this would make an excellent substance to use inemergency situations."Hextend is a water-based solution that includes, among other things,starch, electrolytes, sugar, and buffer. "We have the kinds of things inour solution that the body likes, that the body needs," Segall said. _Jim Shrine

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