Distribution of ABO blood groups and rhesus factor in a Large Scale Study of different cities and ethnicities in Khuzestan province, Iran

Ubiquitous convalescent plasma: An artificial universal plasma for COVID-19 patients

Objectives and background

In December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, China. Its causative virus, is a novel strain of RNA viruses with high mortality rate. There is no definitive treatment, but among available approaches the use of recovered patients’ plasma containing specific antibodies can enhance the immune response against coronavirus. However, the dearth of eligible donors and also ABO incompatibility in plasma transfusion, have limited this therapeutic method. Therefore, it is highly desirable to introduce a simple procedure that allows efficient reduction or even removal of natural ABO antibodies. Accordingly, we aimed to evaluate a RBC-mediated adsorption technique that reduces the titer of the mentioned antibodies in plasma.

Methods/materials

This experimental study was conducted in Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. The pre- and post-incubation antibody titers of 168 plasma samples were determined. For incubation, each plasma sample was exposed (60 min) to different percentages of RBCs at room temperature or 4 °C.

Results

The results evidenced that both the concentration of RBCs and temperature had significant decreasing effects on antibody titer (P < 0.001) and all concentrations significantly reduced titer. Compared to RT, 4 °C further reduced the antibody titer. Overall, the best incubation condition for reducing antibody titer in all blood groups was 4 °C and 2% RBCs concentration.

Conclusion

The presented adsorption procedure is able to produce universal plasma (we call it Ubiquitous Convalescent Plasma) with a non-immunogenic level of ABO mismatch antibodies which can be used for COVID-19 patients with any type of blood group with desirable simplicity, feasibility, and efficacy.

Distribution characteristics of ABO and RhD blood groups among the voluntary blood donors in Chongqing: A retrospective study

The distribution characteristics of ABO and RhD blood groups in the world were different and the data were limited. The aim was to investigate the distribution characteristics of ABO and RhD blood groups in Chongqing, and to provide scientific-effective data for a more reasonable blood collection program. We retrospectively analyzed 795 698 blood donors who had donated blood from 2014 to 2019 at the Chongqing Blood Center. The data on ABO and RhD blood groups were extracted based on blood management system. We used percentages to describe the extraction of data on blood donors by gender, age, and nationality. The data on the distribution of ABO (A, B, AB and O) and RhD (RhD-Positive and RhD-Negative) blood groups were reported also in percentages. Of those, 427 516 (53.73%) were males and 368 182 (46.27%) were females. Among all the blood donors, 321 916 (40.46%) were under the age of 25, followed by 26-35 years age group (22.65%), 36-45 years age group (18.95%), 46-55 years age group (16.98%) and 56-60 years age group (0.96%). There were 755439 (94.94%) of the blood donors who were of the Han nationality. The distribution of blood groups O, A, B and AB were 35.54%, 31.90%, 24.14% and 8.42%, respectively. The distributions of RhD-Negative group was found in 4362 (0.55%) blood donors. The distribution characteristics of the ABO and RhD blood group should be considered when improving blood collection program in Chongqing.