The blood from the store is not worse than fresh, and the blood of the young will be tested on the elderly

There are many superstitions around the blood. People say that the blood of young people is able to rejuvenate the elderly . They also say that during blood transfusion, fresh blood is more preferable than old plasma, which was stored for three years at a temperature below −25 ° C or platelets, which were stored for 5 days, stirring continuously (such storage conditions are established by technical regulations in force in the Russian Federation). In other countries, advanced technology allows blood to be stored for up to 42 days before transfusion.

Check these statements was not easy. So far, more than 40 scientific studies have been carried out, which could not give an unequivocal answer to the question of whether fresh blood is really better than the reserves from the storage.

It took a large-scale and long-term study to assess with a sufficient degree of persuasiveness how foreign blood affects the survival of the recipient, depending on the type of blood. An international team led by researchers from McMaster University (Canada) has 31,497 patients in six hospitals in four countries - and showed that transfusion of more fresh blood does not increase the survival rate of patients, compared with blood from the repository.
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“It was a controversial issue, but our research has finally put an end to the argument about whether blood from the supply could be more dangerous and fresh blood better,” says Nancy Heddle, lead author of the scientific work and honorary professor of the school of medicine. Michael Degrute at McMaster University. “The study provides strong evidence that fresh blood does not improve the patient’s chances, and this should reassure doctors who think otherwise.”

The professor also added that such a result would be good news for millions of donors around the world. Their blood after long-term storage in the refrigerator is not inferior in quality to fresh hot blood.

Now nothing prevents the use of even more technologically advanced methods of storing blood. In the presence of glycerol and other substances, red blood cells can be stored indefinitely at temperatures from –20 to –197 ° C. For storage at –197 ° C, metal containers with liquid nitrogen are used in which containers of blood are immersed. Blood that has been frozen is successfully used for transfusion.

A study in Australia, Canada, Israel and the United States showed that old blood is even safer than fresh blood. After blood transfusion from the repository, the mortality rate was 8.7%, and during the transfusion of fresh blood - 9.1%. There is no statistically significant difference in blood type, diagnosis, hospital or country, according to the results of the study.

The scientific work was published on October 24, 2016 in the New England Journal of Medicine (doi: 10.1056 / NEJMoa1609014).

Thus, the myth of the benefits of fresh blood to blood from the store can be considered finally debunked. At least in those countries where sterility is strictly observed when collecting, monitoring the health of donors, the conditions of transportation and storage of blood. Unfortunately, in Russia it is somewhat more difficult to guarantee. For example, for some reason, three days before the entry into force of the Federal Law of 20.07.2012 No. 125-FZ “On the donation of blood and its components”, the transportation of blood is excluded from the list of medical activities by the RF Government Decree of January 17, 2013 No. 9 On Amendments to the Regulation on the licensing of medical activities (with the exception of the specified activities carried out by medical organizations and other organizations within the private health care system in the territory of the Skolkovo Innovation Center). ”

If the first myth about the advantage of fresh blood has been debunked, what about the second? Is the blood of young people really able to rejuvenate and restore vitality to the old?

Scientific experiments confirm that the infusion of fresh blood really promotes the rejuvenation of muscle tissue and internal organs. For example, in 2010, at Harvard, experiments were conducted on mice: old individuals were given blood to young ones. It turned out that in old mice, after that, hematopoietic hematopoietic stem cells began to behave like young ones: they began to function better in proportion to differentiate into other types of blood cells. The rejuvenating effect of the blood of a young donor had an effect on the stem cells of muscle tissue. Scientific work in Nature published October 14, 2010.

Another experiment was conducted at Stanford University under the direction of Thomas Rando in 2005. There, in an elderly mouse, which transferred blood to a younger one, liver tissue was regenerated and the elasticity of muscles returned.

Similar rejuvenating effects of young blood transfusions were found in mice as a result of several subsequent experiments. The Harvard group has identified a blood plasma protein that can have an important influence on the observed rejuvenation effects. This is GDF11 (growth differentiation factor 11, growth factor and differentiation factor-11), the level of which decreases with age. Several studies have confirmed its rejuvenating effect on the body, and in several others it has not been confirmed. The study of this issue continues. There is a high probability that GDF11 is not the only anti-aging factor.

By the way, blood doping is used in sports. Unscrupulous coaches pump the physical characteristics of the athletes before the competition.

This method is prohibited by the IOC and WADA. It is equivalent to taking prohibited pharmacological drugs. But finding it is quite difficult, because the athlete pours his own blood. The essence of the method is to increase the concentration of red blood cells in the blood of the athlete. This is done in two ways: either by taking blood from an athlete at a time when there is an increase in red blood cells (and further transfusion of this quality blood instead of normal blood), or simply by increasing the amount of blood in the athlete’s body (pre-collecting normal blood and then introduction). In the second case, the excess plasma water is excreted by the kidneys, and the content of red blood cells in the blood increases. This significantly improves the athlete's performance with aerobic exercise.

The elderly do not know anything about scientific experiments on blood transfusion of young donors (although two years ago such experiments were planned on those suffering from Alzheimer's disease). At the same time, the rejuvenating effect of the introduction of GDF11 was confirmed in mice. Perhaps the most influential citizens of Earth even have access to GDF11 reserves. Why not use all the achievements of modern science and medicine, if there is such an opportunity?

As it is known, it is not always reasonable to disclose the latest scientific achievements for the general public until all possible consequences have been carefully calculated and the ground has not been prepared for them.

But even on the basis of open scientific data, it is possible to develop a technique for the rejuvenation of your own body. To do this, take your own young blood in a reasonable amount. When blood is taken, its natural regeneration takes place in the body, so it does not bear harm to health. Next, young blood should be placed in storage at –197 ° C, and then used in case of old age.