What is plasma?
Despite its red appearance, blood is also made up of surrounding cells. The yellow liquid is called plasma. Plasma can be separated and used for many diversified medical applications.
How is plasma obtained?
Plasma is obtained from donors either via donated whole blood or by taking only plasma through a plasmopheresis process. Plasma products are obtained and presented to the use of patients after the plasma is received from the donor, transformed into Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) and is subjected to a series of processes called the plasma fractionation.
Where is plasma decomposed?
Frozen plasma is transported and decomposed in plasma fractionation plants.
Why is plasma categorized and decomposed through a Fractionation process?
Plasma contains thousands of different proteins; however, it has been discovered that about 20 of them can be used as a therapeutic health product once the useful fractions can be extracted to produce therapeutic plasma products. It was first suggested by Cohn that immunoglobulin and albumin fractions could be separated and purified by adjusting all these parameters. Today, the basic principle of Cohn is still used.
Safety in Plasma
Each plasma unit is tested against blood-borne viruses. Before starting a production process with each serial plasma, thousands of individual donations are dissolved and collected in plasma pools and possible disease-causing viruses present in their content are inactivated.
The Future of Plasma Products
Currently, demand for Plasma products is hardly met all over the world. It is compulsory to simultaneously evaluate many demographic, sociological, cultural, economic and political factors and to take concrete steps with strategic determination. Blood donation and/or the number of investments for plasma processing facilities do not increase in parallel with the world’s population increase and the increasing demand accordingly. Countries have to make their future plans in this regard by thinking seriously and strategically.