The waiting lists for organ transplants worldwide could get dramatically shorter thanks to a revolutionary new procedure that would make donor organs compatible with any patient no matter their blood type.
Canadian researchers with the University Health Network have developed a method that would convert the blood type of a donor organ to type O blood, the universal blood type, allowing it to be transplanted into anyone in need.
‘With the current matching system, wait times can be considerably longer for patients who need a transplant depending on their blood type,’ Dr. Marcelo Cypel, a thoracic surgeon who co-authored the study, said.
Cypel created a method of pumping the lungs full of nourishing fluids to warm them up to body temperature before converting them to universal donor organs.
Biochemist Dr. Stephen Withers, of the University of British Columbia, discovered a group of stomach enzymes that can be used to flush out the organ and remove the antigens, which is something blood type usually depends on – having the same antigens.
Doctors would no longer have to worry about transplant rejection because of blood type and they would be able to prioritize according to need rather than compatibility.
Each year, there are 130,000 Americans waiting for new lungs, liver, heart and other organs, but only 8,000 of those patients get the operations they need because of the shortage of available compatible organs, according to Fivethirtyeight.
The new procedure would greatly increase the fairness around organ transplant allocations and reduce the number of patients who are overcome and die from their ailments because of the extended wait times.
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Canadian researchers with the University Health Network have developed a method that would convert the blood type of a donor organ to type O blood, allowing it to be transplanted into anyone in need. Pictured: A pair of lungs
Lungs flushed with enzymes, pictured, and kept fresh by experimental methods responded well to new blood type introduced to the system
If this method clears clinical trials it would greatly increased the fairness around organ transplant allocations and reduce the number of patients who are overcome and die from their ailments because of the extended wait time. Pictured: A pair of lungs
Dr. Marcelo Cypel created a method of pumping the lungs full of nourishing fluids to warm them up to body temperature before converting them to universal donor organs
‘Patients who are type O and need a lung transplant have a 20 percent higher risk of dying while waiting for a matched organ to become available,’ said Dr. Aizhou Wang, the lead author of the research paper on the method.
Wang and Cypel were able to convert a set of lungs with type O blood into an organ with type O blood at the Toronto-based Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Lab and Ajmera Transplant Center.
Blood antigens prompt an immune response if they are in conflict with a patient’s naturally occurring antigens.
Blood type depends on the antigens on a person’s blood cells: type A blood has A antigens and type B has B antigens, while type AB blood has both. Type O blood has no antigens.
Each year there are 130,000 Americans waiting for new lungs, liver, heart and other organs, but only 8,000 of those patients get the operations they need because of the shortage of available compatible organs
If an organ with the wrong antigen is transplanted into a patient’s body, the body will trigger an immune response and reject the organ
Patients with type O blood in need of a lung transplant are 20 percent more likely to die because of the lack of compatible organs
Now that the experiment has proven successful, the doctors hope to move to clinical trials to test their theories on actual patients within a year and a half
If an organ with the wrong antigen is transplanted into a patient’s body, the body will trigger an immune response and reject the organ.
This is why creating organs that are universally compatible is such a breakthrough.
The new method was a result of a cross-disciplinary collaboration.
‘Enzymes are Mother Nature’s catalysts and they carry out particular reactions. This group of enzymes that we found in the human gut can cut sugars from the A and B antigens on red blood cells, converting them into universal type O cells,’ Withers said.
‘In this experiment, this opened a gateway to create universal blood-type organs.’
To test the theory, the doctors took two sets of lungs, one treated and one not, and added type O blood with A type concentrations to a set of disembodied lungs hooked up to circulatory system.
The treated lungs tolerated the introduction of the new blood type, while the untreated lungs showed signs of rejection.
Now that the experiment has proven successful, the doctors hope to move to clinical trials to test their theories on actual patients within a year and a half.
