Andy Wellsover 5 years ago

Japanese Scientists Create Artificial Blood That Could Potentially Be Given To All Blood Types

Scientists in Japan have developed “artificial blood” that could, in theory, be transfused into patients regardless of their blood type. Yep, it's pretty much the same premise as the TV show True Blood, just without the vampires. It’s still extremely early days for the research – so far, it’s only been tested out on 10 rabbits with mixed success – however, if it moves into human trials, this could be a very exciting breakthrough. Currently, if you need to receive a blood transfusion, it must be matched with your blood type or the "universal donor," type O negative. A one-size-fits-all blood substitute would overcome all sorts of existing obstacles, ranging from not enough donations by ethnic minorities, to finding matches for rare blood types. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 117.4 billion units of donated blood are collected globally each year, and that's still not enough. Read more...