For centuries, the only use humans found for the lugworm \u2014 dark pink, slimy and inedible \u2014 was on the end of a fish hook. <\/p>\n
But the invertebrates’ unappreciated status is about to change.<\/p>\n
Their blood, say French researchers, has an extraordinary ability to load up with life-giving oxygen.<\/p>\n
Harnessing it for human needs could transform medicine, providing a blood substitute that could save lives, speed recovery after surgery and help transplant patients, they say. <\/p>\n
“The hemoglobin of the lugworm can transport 40 times more oxygen from the lungs to tissues than human hemoglobin,” says Gregory Raymond, a biologist at Aquastream, a fish-farming facility on the Brittany coastline. For centuries, the only use humans found for the lugworm \u2014 dark pink, slimy and inedible \u2014 was on the end of a fish hook. But the invertebrates’ unappreciated status is about to change. Their blood, say French researchers, has an extraordinary ability to load up with life-giving oxygen. Harnessing it for human needs could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670,"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions\/670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttps:\/\/theworld.org\/stories\/2017-07-31\/lugworm-frequently-used-bait-could-save-human-lives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"