Polymer May Create Universal Blood Type

Tue., May 6, 1997

Compiled From Wire Services

A technique of coating red blood cells with a harmless polymer may make it possible to transfuse any type of blood into any type of patient, researchers said Monday.

Dr. Mark Scott of the Albany Medical Center said he and his team have developed a process to coat red blood cells with a polymer called polyethylene glycol, or PEG, that would make all blood compatible with all patients.

“We think this would make it possible, in effect, to have a universal blood type,” Scott said.

Scott and his colleagues, John Eaton of Baylor College of Medicine and Kari Murad of Albany, reported on their research at a national meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.

Human blood comes in four basic types, A, B, AB and O. The types are based on the presence of antigens on the surface of A and B blood types. These antigens can trigger powerful and destructive reactions in patients given the wrong blood type.

Scott said that when red blood cells are coated with PEG, the antigens that cause the cross-type reaction are camouflaged and never detected by the immune system.

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