Researchers Change Blood Type of Kidney In Transplant Breakthrough (theguardian.com) 22
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Researchers have successfully altered the blood type of three donor kidneys in a gamechanging discovery that could significantly improve the chances of patients waiting for a transplant finding a match. The development could increase the supply of kidneys available for transplant, particularly within minority ethnic groups who are less likely to find a match, scientists say. A kidney from someone with blood type A cannot be transplanted to someone with blood type B, nor the other way around. But changing the blood type to the universal O would allow more transplants to take place as this can be used for people with any blood type.
University of Cambridge researchers used a normothermic perfusion machine -- a device that connects with a human kidney to pass oxygenated blood through the organ to better preserve it for future use -- to flush blood infused with an enzyme through the deceased donor's kidney. The enzyme removed the blood type markers that line the blood vessels of the kidney, which led to the organ being converted to the most common O type. [...] Now the researchers need to see how the newly changed O-type kidney will react to a patient's usual blood type in their normal blood supply. The machine allows them to do this before testing in people, as they can take the kidneys that have been changed to the O type, and introduce different blood types to monitor how the kidney might react. The full paper on the work is set to be published in the British Journal of Surgery in the coming months.
University of Cambridge researchers used a normothermic perfusion machine -- a device that connects with a human kidney to pass oxygenated blood through the organ to better preserve it for future use -- to flush blood infused with an enzyme through the deceased donor's kidney. The enzyme removed the blood type markers that line the blood vessels of the kidney, which led to the organ being converted to the most common O type. [...] Now the researchers need to see how the newly changed O-type kidney will react to a patient's usual blood type in their normal blood supply. The machine allows them to do this before testing in people, as they can take the kidneys that have been changed to the O type, and introduce different blood types to monitor how the kidney might react. The full paper on the work is set to be published in the British Journal of Surgery in the coming months.
Strip away other antigens? (Score:5, Interesting)
Curious if they can use this method to strip away other antigens to effectively give it a universal match. That is, reduce or possibly even eliminate the need for anti-rejection drugs, which themselves cause damage to the existing and transplanted kidneys. (And yes, they do leave the existing diseased kidneys intact, post transplant I now have three kidneys, and the existing ones still retain residual function to assist the new one.)
Re:Strip away other antigens? (Score:4, Informative)
There are many kinds of rejection. The technology in the article addresses immediate hyperfucked rejection which occurs when the blood group is mismatched. But then below hyper there's regular acute rejection when your HLA is mismatched. That is really hard to edit/fix. It isn't a simple thing. If you say fuck-everything and wholesale suppress MHC presentation entirely, NK cells will destroy the tissue. The only currently feasible solution is to choose an HLA match. I'm not saying it is unsolvable, in fact it is very solvable .. just not easy and there are complications. Better to find an HLA match.
Perfusion pump (Score:3, Informative)
Do you know who invented the perfusion pump? Charles Lindbergh, to save his sister. Yes, Charles Lindbergh the aviator, racist/anti-semite. I guess you can be a jerk and still net contribute good.
References: https://hmsc.harvard.edu/carre... [harvard.edu]
https://blog.transonic.com/mec... [transonic.com]
https://www.theaacp.com/wp-con... [theaacp.com]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What the hell are you talking about? I literally did the opposite of erasing.
Re:Perfusion pump (Score:4, Informative)
He needed to add it or his valid point about being a jerk would have made no sense. Unless aviators are jerks :)
Re: (Score:2)
You're apparently getting downmods from both the far right and the far left. Well played!
Re: Perfusion pump (Score:2)
Yeah I have a natural talent for doing that.
Well that interesting considering... (Score:1)
...my wife has one of my kidneys and we are not the same bloodtype.
It might make thing easier, but that problem was solved a decade ago.
Re: (Score:2)
...my wife has one of my kidneys and we are not the same bloodtype.
It might make thing easier, but that problem was solved a decade ago.
Do you happen to have blood type O?
Re: Well that interesting considering... (Score:1)
Nope, we are A and B. We where told by several doctors and nurses that it was no longer important and only an extra treatment was necessary to cleanse her blood from the relevant antibodies.
Done with a huge centrifuge for 3hours.
Re: (Score:2)
Ethnic minorities? (Score:1)
Aren't those the ones you are supposed to oppress and kill?
Sorry, could not resist. This is pretty interesting research that will be quite useful.
For how long .... ? (Score:2)
How long will this last.
My understanding is that tissues in any animal are continually being replenished by cells dying and then replaced by new cells.
The new cells lining the capillaries are genetic clones from the donor's DNA, and they will have the blood type of the donor.
So unless this enzymatic suppression of the blood type is continuous, the problem will appear again in months or years ...
Anyone in the know?
Re: (Score:2)
How long will this last.
My understanding is that tissues in any animal are continually being replenished by cells dying and then replaced by new cells.
Also: Don't the cells continuously synthesize new surface material, including trans-membrane proteins, and add them to the surface (via the endoplasmic reticulua and golgi apparatus)?
I'd think that removing the current markers wouldn't stop the still-living cells from adding enough replacements to cause trouble.
(Perhaps, if the cells lining the vessels are s
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps, if the cells lining the vessels are slowly removed by the body as they re-decorate themselves, and replaced by new cells derived from circulating stem cells of the recipient rather than donor stem cells that came with the transplant, this treatment will work to avoid acute blood-type based rejection in the long term.
In fact, that might work for the whole tissue. If the donor cells are removed slowly enough and the scaffolding recolonized with recipient-derived cells, guided by the growth factors f