Christy Cooney | BBC News
In England, scientists managed to change the blood group of the kidneys to be used for organ transplantation.
It is stated that this could be an invention that could increase the supply of organs for transplantation and would have special implications for groups that often struggle to find suitable donors.
People with different blood groups cannot receive kidney transplants.
However, it is possible to transfer the kidney to any patient by converting the blood group to type 0 (zero).
Black and other ethnic people often have to wait a year longer for a transplant than white patients because they have the rarer type B blood group.
Organ donation rates are also lower among these groups. Just over 9 percent of total organ donations in 2020-21 came from black and other ethnic minority donors. People belonging to these communities make up a third of the kidney transplant waiting list.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge were able to pass blood loaded with a special enzyme through the donor kidney through normothermic perfusion (a device used to move oxygenated blood through the kidney to help protect the kidney).
This enzyme effectively converts the blood type to type O by removing the blood type markers that line the vessels in the kidney. Successfully performed on three donor kidneys, the procedure takes several hours.
“It’s very exciting to think about how this outcome could potentially impact many lives,” said Serena MacMillan, a doctoral student who conducted the research.
The next step will be to examine how the kidneys respond when given normal blood from the new blood types. This can be tested with the help of a device before the kidney is transplanted to the patient.
The research, funded by charity Kidney Research, is expected to be published in the medical journal British Journal of Surgery in the coming months.
The charity’s director of research, Dr. Aisling McMahon described the work as “breakthrough potential”.
James Gallagher | BBC Health and Science Correspondent
This is an important study, but its impact on organ transplants has yet to be proven.
There are questions about the extent to which this study will contribute to scientific research and finding organs for organ donation.
More tests will need to be done, tested in the lab and then in a small number of patients, to see how the changed blood type performs with the new blood type and to make sure that the process does not cause any damage to the kidneys.
Also, blood type is just one of three ways kidneys are matched before a transplant. Also, half of the population is already 0 positive or 0 negative, meaning their kidneys can be donated to anyone.
Tissue matching and cross matching (mixing the blood of donor and recipient to see if there is a reaction) will still remain a factor, especially in ethnic groups.
The best way to increase the number of life-saving transplants today is to get more donors from each community.