Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) as a biological product

Biological Products are generally derived from various living organisms like humans, animals, or microorganisms and then are synthesized by biotechnology methods and other medical technologies for developing drugs that can be further utilized for the treatment, prevention or cure of various diseases in humans. Biological Products are usually not fully characterized and are complex in structure. These substances are composed of sugars, proteins, or nucleic acids or complex combinations of all these substances along with several living bodies like cells and tissues.

Biological Products can be of any form of medical drug like a vaccine, blood or blood component, somatic cell, gene, tissue, recombinant therapeutic protein, or living cells that are used as therapeutic medicine to treat diseases in humans. These products are developed by biologic processes, rather than being chemically synthesized. There are a number of such products that are now easily available in the market in many distinct forms.

Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) is also one of such Plasma Products, a sub form of Biological Products. It is the liquid portion of human blood that has been frozen and preserved after a blood donation and will be used for various medical purposes like blood transfusion etc.

The use of plasma and Plasma Products has evolved over a period of four decades. Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) is also one of the most used forms in the United States that can refer to the fluid portion of one unit of human blood that has been centrifuged, separated, and frozen solid at a temperature of −18 °C or more within eight hours of collection from a donor. These Plasma Products though can be preserved in many different forms at different temperatures and can be utilized for different purposes.

The transfused plasma products like FFP are effective for treatment of various deficiencies and diseases being the forefront of biomedical research are used to treat a variety of medical conditions for which no other treatments are available. However, other Plasma Products are not that efficacious for the treatment purposes. Evidence also indicates that other plasma components like single donor plasma may have adequate levels of coagulation factors and are suitable for patients with mild deficiencies of stable clotting factors and other multiple deficiencies in liver disease.

AS FFP contains all the major plasma proteins in it, it can be served as a supplement for plasma in humans. It contains both the labile as well as the stable components of the coagulation, fibrinolytic and complement systems along with the proteins that maintain oncotic pressure and modulate immunity in the human body. In addition to these FFP also constitute of several other biological substances like carbohydrates, fats and minerals at concentrated levels in their composition.

However like all the other Plasma Products, FFP’s also poses some risk factors or side effects. Some of the risk factors associated with this substance include anaphylactic reactions, disease transmission, excessive intravascular volume, alloimmunization, an increase in infections of the body. The potential viral infectivity of FFP is also similar as that of whole blood and red blood cells in the human body where minute disseminations can cause many complexities in the recipients. Also, in some cases hepatitis is also being traced post the transfusion. If any of the intravenous fluid is administered to the patient there will be a sudden hike in the FFP rate in the human blood and this excessive rate of FFP in human blood may result various medical conditions like hypervolemia and cardiac failure.