Altering kidney blood type may boost transplants

Scientists have successfully changed the blood type of donor kidneys in a discovery which could increase the supply of the organs for transplant.

 

The breakthrough may have particular implications for minority ethnic groups who often finding it harder to find a match.

 

A kidney from a donor with blood type A cannot be given to a patient with type B, and vice versa.  However, changing the blood type of a kidney to the universal type O will mean it can be transplanted into any patient.

 

Patients from black and other ethnic minority groups often have to wait a year longer for a transplant than white patients because they are more likely to have the rarer B-type blood group.

 

During the research, scientists at the University of Cambridge were able to use a normothermic perfusion machine to flush blood infused with an enzyme through a donor kidney.  The enzyme removes the blood-type markers that line the blood vessels of the organ, effectively changing its blood type to type O.

 

The research, which is funded by charity Kidney Research UK, is due to be published in the British Journal of Surgery in the coming months.

 

Dr Aisling McMahon, the charity’s executive director, called the work “potentially game-changing”.

 

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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