Interspecies blood transfusions are theoretically possible but require a complicated process to remove all antigens and foreign bodies. The cost would be prohibitive and the risk of serious illness or death is high. Attempts in the past have resulted in deaths and rejection of grafted glands. The ABO blood typing system made it clear that animal blood contains too many antigens and antibodies for human use. Using animal blood as an alternative supply for human patients is a potential solution but still faces challenges.
In theory at least, interspecies blood transfusions would be possible, but only after the donor blood has gone through an extraordinarily complicated process to remove all possible antigens and foreign bodies. By the time these blood transfusions became sufficiently feasible for the recipient, the cost would have been prohibitive compared to traditional human-to-human transfusions. There would still be a high risk of serious illness or even death triggered by a mismatched blood donation.
This is not to say that interspecies blood transfusions have never been attempted. During the late 17th century, long before scientists knew about ABO blood typing, some human patients were given sheep blood transfusions in an attempt to restore vitality. Some patients who have received these blood transfusions have recovered, most likely despite the procedure. The rest of the recipients died from severe allergic reactions or other dangerous conditions associated with incompatible blood donations.
The number of deaths caused by interspecies blood transfusion prompted a halt to the dubious process, although other interspecies transplants continued with varying success rates. Animal glands, in particular, were occasionally grafted onto human organs in an attempt to enhance the patient’s overall vitality or sexual potency or other purported benefits. Rejection of these grafted glands was a common and often lethal side effect.
The development of the ABO blood typing system in 1907 helped scientists understand the basic difficulty of interspecies blood transfusions. Finding suitable human-to-human donors for rare blood types was already difficult, let alone finding a suitable interspecies donor. Animal blood contained a number of antigens and antibodies that would be instantly attacked by the human immune system. Even primates with only 1 percent genetic difference from humans still had too many factors to make blood transfusions possible.
Considering the difficulty many hospitals and trauma centers face in trying to maintain a minimal supply of human blood, interspecies blood transfusions would appear to be a potential solution to the problem. In theory, blood from slaughtered cows, pigs or chickens could be processed and stored as an alternative blood supply for human patients. There would be no more reliance on human blood donations, and a waste product in the meat processing industry could become a life-saving product in the medical world.
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