A way to make "universal" organs for transplanting into people with any blood type has been published in the Science Translational Medicine journal.
The Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories and UHN's Ajmera Transplant Centre have proven that it's possible to convert blood types safely in donor organs for transplantation. For example, donors with O blood types are considered universal because there are no agglutinogens (proteins A and B) in their blood, which means it's suitable for all patients, including those with the rarest blood type – AB.
Canadian scientists managed to change the blood type of transplanted organs to O by ridding it of specific antigens using the enzymes N-acetyl-alpha-D-galactose deacetylase (FpGalNAc-deacetylase) and D-galactosamine-galactosaminidase (FpGalactosaminidase). At the beginning of the experiment, they tested this method on aortic tissue, and then successfully destroyed group A proteins in eight lung samples.
Canadian scientists managed to change the blood type of transplanted organs to O by ridding it of specific antigens using the enzymes N-acetyl-alpha-D-galactose deacetylase (FpGalNAc-deacetylase) and D-galactosamine-galactosaminidase (FpGalactosaminidase). At the beginning of the experiment, they tested this method on aortic tissue, and then successfully destroyed group A proteins in eight lung samples.
It took the enzymes about four hours to destroy almost all of the agglutinogens.