The researchers have successfully altered the blood type of three donor kidneys in a gamechanging discovery that could improve the chances of patients waiting for a transplant to find a match.
The researchers say that the development could increase the availability of kidneys available for transplant, particularly within minority ethnic groups who are less likely to find a match.
A kidney from someone with blood type A can't be transplanted to someone with blood type B, or the other way around.
If you change the blood type to universal O, this would allow more transplants to take place, as this can be used for people with any blood type.
The University of Cambridge researchers used a normothermic perfusion machine to pass oxygenated blood through a human kidney to better preserve it for future use, allowing them to flush blood infused with an enzyme through the deceased donor's kidney.
The enzyme removed blood type markers that line the blood vessels of the kidney, which led to the organ being converted to type O.
Serena MacMillan, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, said their confidence was boosted after they applied the enzyme to a piece of human kidney tissue and saw very quickly that the antigens were removed.
After that, we knew that the process was feasible, so we just had to scale up the project to apply the enzyme to full-sized human kidneys.
By taking B-type human kidneys and pumping the enzyme through the organ using our normothermic perfusion machine, we saw in a matter of just a few hours that we had converted a B-type kidney into an O type.
It is very exciting to think about how this could potentially affect so many lives. People from minority ethnic groups often wait a year longer for a transplant than white patients, so the study could have particular implications for them, experts say.
People from minority communities are more likely to have type B blood and there are not enough kidneys to go around with low donation rates from these populations.
In 2020-21, just over 9% of total organ donations in the UK came from black and minority ethnic donors, while black and minority ethnic patients make up 33% of the kidney transplant waiting list.
Now the researchers need to see how the newly changed O-type kidney will react to a patient's usual blood type in normal blood supply.
The machine allows them to take the kidneys that have been changed to type O, and introduce different blood types to monitor how the kidney might react before testing in people, as they can also introduce different blood types to monitor how the kidney might react.
Professor of Transplant Surgery at the University of Cambridge, Professor Mike Nicholson, said: One of the biggest restrictions on who a donated kidney can be transplanted is the fact that you have to be blood group compatible.
The reason for this is that you have antigens and markers on your cells that can be either A or B.
Your body produces antibodies against the ones you don't have.
Ethnic minority groups and ethnic minority groups are more likely to have the rarer B type blood group classification because of race and ethnicity. The research that Mike and Serena are undertaking is potentially gamechanging, according to the executive director of research at Kidney Research UK, Aisling McMahon. After testing the reintroduction of other blood types, the team will look at how the approach might be used in a clinical setting.
The research, which was funded by Kidney Research UK, is due to be published in the British Journal of Surgery in the coming months.