Blood Transfusion Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Blood Transfusion, including details on blood donation, blood types, leukemia.

Xenotransfusions, past and present.

Roux FA, Saï P, Deschamps JY

Department of Cellular and Molecular Immuno-Endocrinology, INRA, Nantes School of Veterinary Medicine, Nantes Cedex, France.

The first blood transfusions in humans were xenotransfusions, carried out by Jean-Baptiste Denis beginning in 1667. Richard Lower, Matthäus Purmann and Georges Mercklin also experimented with the use of animal blood for transfusion until this practice was forbidden in 1670, after the death of one of Denis's patients. In the middle of the 19th century, xenotransfusion was rescued from oblivion by the work of Pierre Cyprien Oré. Franz Gesellius and Oscar Hasse fervently defended xenotransfusion, but Emil Ponfick and Leonard Landois stressed the potentially harmful effects of inter-species transfusion from 1874 onward. Xenotransfusion was abandoned completely following the discovery of blood groups by Karl Landsteiner in 1900. From 2000, because of progress in xenotransplantation and the need of blood supply, xenotransfusion is again being considered. Pigs are the best potential donors. The development of alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase gene-knockout pigs has overcome the first hurdle to xenotransfusion. The main obstacle to porcine red blood cell transfusion is now the cellular response involving macrophages or natural killer cells.

Published 10 May 2007 in Xenotransplantation, 14(3): 208-16.
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