| Administrative History | Dextrans are long-chain polymers of glucose of various molecular weights, commonly used in confections, in lacquers, as food additives, and as plasma volume expanders.
Stalker began working with dextran when a colleage in the Surgery Departemnt at Aberdeen found that the reduction in red cell volume in rabbits after plasma volume expansion by dextran was greater than expected.
His research looked at the differential effects of dextran infusion to rabbits in causing red cell sludging. By transfusing dextrans of different molecular weight he concluded that whilst sludging was just aparent after Swedish dextran (with a typical molecular weight of 80,000), the transfusion of British clinical dextran (with a typical molecular weight of above 150,000) led to severe sludging. The Medical Research Council asked Stalker to present a report of his work to its Blood Transfusion Research Committee, which prompted debate over revision of the molecular weight of British dextran. He subsequently conducted trials on modified dextran solutions on behalf of the Medical Research Council. |