The new technology involves replacing the second blood group of a donor organ with the first. The article says that this is already enough for 80% of organs selected for transplantation to become universal.
Currently, blood group compatibility is one of the main barriers to organ transplantation, as the immune system begins to attack antigens of the inappropriate group. Since there are no antigens in the first blood group, people with it are considered “universal donors”. Their blood and tissue will not cause an immune reaction in recipients of any blood type.
Scientists at the University of Toronto have developed and tested a method that allows one to change the blood type of a donor organ for transplantation within a few hours. In the future, the discovery will make it possible to transplant organs on the principle of “everyone from everyone,” according to an article in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Using donated lungs that once belonged to a person with blood type O, researchers Aizhou Wang and Marcelo Saipela injected a small dose of certain enzymes into the tissue. The team then performed antibody staining that labeled the remaining antigens so they could see how well the enzymes worked. Within an hour, more than 90 percent of the second blood group antigens were destroyed. Four hours later, this number increased to 97, which formally changes the blood type of these lungs to the first.
“Some patients on the waiting list die because of this, some have to wait a very long time. If we eliminate blood type incompatibility as a barrier to matching, we will take a big step forward in equitable distribution of donor organs,” the scientists report.