2024-05-01 12:21:27
Blood transfusions save lives. But there is a chronic shortage of canned goods. Now Scandinavian researchers have found a new approach.
29 different blood groups are known today. Most of them are very rare. The four most important are A, B, AB and 0. The most common blood types are A Rhesus positive and 0 Rhesus positive (37 and 35 percent).
- You can read everything you need to know about blood groups and the Rhesus factor here.
If a person needs a blood transfusion, it must either be from their blood group or from blood group 0. The latter is considered universal blood. Because if blood groups A and B mix, the body reacts by forming antibodies. As a result, the blood clumps together, which can be fatal if transfused. An exception is blood group 0. It is not identified as foreign due to a missing sugar molecule and can therefore be used universally.
Scandinavian researchers have now succeeded in converting blood groups A and B into universal group 0. They focused on the intestinal bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila, which stabilizes the intestinal mucosa. In it they found enzymes that convert certain antigens on the red blood cells in such a way that blood group 0 is created.
Enzymes change the blood type
“We report the discovery of remarkably efficient enzymes that act not only against A and B antigens, but also against their appendages,” write the study authors, according to the knowledge portal scinexx.de. The whole process takes no more than 30 minutes and is very safe.
This method makes it possible to increase the availability of donor blood and simplify blood logistics for rare blood groups, argue the researchers, who have now published their results in the journal “Nature Microbiology”.
Experts definitely see potential in the new process. Hematologist Markus M. Müller from the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main emphasizes in the “Science Media Center”: “The results of the study are interesting from a scientific and health care perspective.”
However, we now have to wait for the results of animal experiments. Müller: “Questions arise such as: Do the erythrocytes treated in this way (red blood cells, Anm. d. Red.) elicit an immune reaction in the recipient? Maybe only after repeated use? How long do such pretreated erythrocytes survive in the recipient? How well do these erythrocytes flow through the smallest capillaries?”
Further research will now follow.