An experiment to change the blood type of donated organs could be a first step to shortening transplant wait times.
case at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, researchers gave a pair of lungs a new identity. When the lungs first arrived in the lab, they were from someone with type A blood, meaning that there were certain tiny markers, called antigens, attached to the lung tissue and blood cells. But when the lungs left the lab, those antigens were almost entirely gone. In just one hour, the researchers had effectively transformed the lungs into type O.
The device allows doctors to feed donated lungs nutrients and oxygen in a protected environment, which improves their transplant viability. Unlike organs that are put on ice after being harvested from a donor and then go straight to the operating room, lungs inside the EVLP warm up and their metabolism restarts before they're transplanted.
But because type O blood has no antigens, people with O are considered “universal donors.” Their blood and tissue won’t set off an immune response for recipients of any blood type. Using a set of donated lungs that had once belonged to a person with type A blood, Wang and Cypel administered a small dose of those enzymes to the tissue. Then the team performed an antibody stain, which marked the remaining antigens so they could see how successful the enzymes had been. Within an hour, over 90 percent of those A antigens had been chopped away. After four hours, 97 percent were gone.
“This research and the results reported are particularly important, since graft diseases caused by antibodies directed against the donor are among the most difficult to treat,” says Marilia Cascalho, an immunologist at the University of Michigan who was not involved with the study.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Scientists Convert Donor Lungs to Universal Blood Type in a Medical FirstPatients can wait a long time for potentially life-saving lung transplants, since the need to find close matches complicates the process. One of the characteristics that need to be matched is patient and donor blood type.
Read more »
Scientists create universal blood-type organs for transplantScientists report in a new study that they used a combination of technologies to convert eight type-A lungs into type-O lungs, which are less likely to be attacked by a patient’s immune system, regardless of their blood type.
Read more »
Our immune systems are remembering COVID-19 and fighting against its variants, study findsTwo years into the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers wanted to know how well human beings are holding up against its variants. Here's what they found:
Read more »
‘The Boys: Diabolical’ Trailer: Simon Pegg Finally Plays Hughie CampbellAmazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” is finally giving fans of its Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson-created comic book source material what they have always wanted: Simon Pegg playing …
Read more »