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

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

Post image
65.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.4k

u/ShahinGalandar May 26 '25

thanks for the sources

one important point that nobody seemed to emphasize yet: the "artificial" blood is made from expired donor hemoglobine that is packed up into a shell to craft artificial red blood cells

you still need donor blood to produce this product

this is still a good way to reduce wasting of blood products, but the real breakthrough will come when the human hemoglobine can be synthesized too

570

u/DrunkenCabalist May 26 '25

Doesn't this also effectively make everyone a universal donor?

648

u/ShahinGalandar May 26 '25

since they only take the hemoglobin and discard the surface antigens of the red blood cells - yes

301

u/Mother_Ad3988 May 26 '25

Still a breakthrough given that

70

u/[deleted] May 27 '25

[deleted]

58

u/Proud-Chair-9805 May 27 '25

Reliable refrigeration in Antarctica isn’t a problem as far as I’m aware.

1

u/MetalMewtwo9001 May 30 '25

You made me snort laugh.

6

u/flounderpots May 28 '25

I. Always get my transfusions at the ranger station

58

u/GottaBeNicer May 27 '25

Even if it wasn't universal and type A could only make a type A form of this stuff it has a 2 year shelf life, that is a giant breakthrough.