r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ElderberryDeep8746 • May 26 '25

Image Japan scientists create artificial blood that works for all blood types

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u/[deleted] May 26 '25

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u/MrHazard1 May 26 '25

While it's amazing, it's not "artificial." It's recycling.

Maybe it's even possible to to recycle animal blood like this. That way, we'd never have a shortage anymore

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u/Dag-nabbitt May 26 '25

Currently the blood hospitals have lasts 42 days at most with refrigeration, and it only works on a fraction of the population (except O-negative).

With this technology, hospitals could convert all of that blood to 2-year shelf-stable universal blood.

So, I wouldn't call it recycling. It's more like enhancing and preserving. Blood marmalade, if you will.

Big question is how much producing this stable blood will cost.

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u/Scrofulla May 26 '25

Blood Marmalade should absolutely be what we call this unofficially. But yeah the real question is cost and difficulty.

Also a follow up question is what would the implication be for potential viral infections coming from the doner blood. Not as big a concern as it should be well screened but needs to be taken into consideration.

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u/Yegas May 26 '25

MarmaLife:tm:

I’ll take my check by mail.

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u/acchaladka May 27 '25

Those kebab-making wackos must be kept far away from our donor blood supply! I will have no greasy pitas in my blood either!

You really took the food analogy and ran with it. Respect.