Artificial Type O Blood Synthesized from Gut Bacteria

Red blood components (image credited by redcrossblood.org)

With six billion of global population, the demands of blood for certain treatments for special diseases are high. According to the international organisations, 21 millions of blood components are transfused annually, which indicate that in the future, the amounts of red blood is projected to be increased. Unfortunately, fresh red blood lies only from the donation of the people. Therefore, finding sustainable solution in preserving the demands of red blood is highly important.

On the other hand, the type of red blood that can be transfused to many people is only type O negative red cells. Consequently, this type of red blood is in high demands, while the producer – people which only have this type of red cells – is relatively low. With this current situation, the supply of O negative type blood must be preserved. And fortunately, the US scientists have found the solution in answering this problem.

By using the DNA of gut bacteria, the scientists produce the enzymes that are used in producing the specific red blood. The enzymes are utilized to separate the antigens within the red bloods. The enzymes then removed antigens 30 times efficiently from the blood donations. Conclusively, they use bacteria for removing the antigens from the other red blood types. By quoting exactly from the study, Kruskall et al 2000 have reported that a recombinant alpha-galactosidase was able to remove terminal galactose from group B RBCs. And before this type of red cell is transfused, they investigate the components for transfusion application.

The results are mind-bugling. From the 21 patients that were randomly chosen, only one patient experienced small volumes of blood transfusion due to the incompatibility issue. However, no adverse situations were occurred suggesting the converted blood type is clinically safety for human transfusion. This research suggests that artificial blood type is potentially to be produced in a massive number although the conversion requires lots of expenses due to the isolation of enzymes.