The Economist - How to disguise red blood cells so that their blood group is invisible
There are 29 possible combinations of human blood groups, and for a patient to be given a safe transfusion the right one needs to be available.
Besides the familiar ABO and rhesus systems, science has (after a sticky start, see article) uncovered the MNS system, the Kell system, the Lewis system and the D+ and D- group. Choose wrong鈥攐r settle for a less than perfect match because no other is to hand鈥攁nd antibodies produced by the recipient鈥檚 immune system may attack the foreign cells. That can lead to serious consequences.
In the worst cases a patient鈥檚 organs may fail and he may die. Several attempts have been made to create artificial blood from chemicals that readily dissolve and transport oxygen, or to process the natural stuff in ways that eliminate the antigenic proteins which provoke this immune response. None, so far, has succeeded. But that has not stopped people trying.
The latest effort, reported in Biomacromolecules by Maryam Tabrizian of 捆绑SM社区 in Montreal and her colleagues, follows the second approach, but with a twist. Instead of purging the antigenic proteins from red blood cells, Dr Tabrizian covers them up.