BEFORE we answer this question, it’s best to review info on this matter. So, let’s go.
The closest genotypic relatives of humans are chimpanzees. Various sources claim that humans and chimpanzees share a lot of common genes and gene sequences. Estimates vary from 95% to 98%, or even 99%. You don’t have to take my word for this, or for what I’ll be typing below; both a quick or a thorough perusal of the internet on your part will confirm this.
Assuming the above is true, it should follow that humans and chimpanzee cell surfaces, including red blood cells (RBC) share a lot of antigens. RBC surface antigens are responsible for the compatibility of donor to patient blood transfusions. The recipient might agglutinize the donor’s RBC especially if their blood types (which are the surface RBC antigens) don’t match. On the other hand, the recipient’s immune system antibodies might also NOT agglutinize the donor’s blood, in which case the recipient survives the blood transfusion.
How do we know if the recipient and donor blood are compatible? By cross matching them. Hospitals and clinics all over the world do this routinely; and transfuse blood successfully by the millions every day.
The above uses human to human transfusions. What about transfusions from other mammals?
To repeat, the closest genotypic relatives of humans are chimpanzees. We belong to the same family, the Hominidae or great apes, together with orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees (and pygmy chimpanzees or bonobos).
You can tell where this is going. The great apes share many cell surface antigens, including those responsible for blood types. We humans share with most great apes many blood types, including our major ones, which are the A- B- O, M- N, and Rh blood types. According to Discover Wildlife magazine, chimpanzees and bonobos possess mainly type A blood; and orangutans have A, B, AB, and O. However, gorillas possess blood types that do not fit the ABO system.
Cross matching between human donor and recipient typically investigates compatibility of the A- B- O set of surface RBC antigens. The obvious next question is: has cross matching ever been done between humans and chimps?
Yes, and not only that; humans have donated blood to chimpanzees. Moreover, chimpanzees have survived these blood transfusions from humans (according to Discover Wildlife).
You probably know where this is going.
Has chimp blood ever been donated to a human?
According to the paper, A Brief History of Cross-Species Organ Transplantation by David Cooper, although chimpanzee kidneys, heart, liver have been donated to humans, no chimpanzee to human blood transfusion has ever been done.
Conceivably, chimpanzee to human blood transfusion CAN be done, say in emergency cases in far-off places wherein no other compatible human donor is available.
Or maybe it has already been done in secret experiments.
Already, there have been long-standing speculations that human – chimpanzee hybrids have been conceived – managed by Russian scientists in the 1930s and Chinese scientists in the 1960s. Assuming that this actually happened, I personally doubt if it would result in viable offsprings because humans and chimps have different number of chromosomes.
All great apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans, have 48 chromosomes (in 24 pairs), except humans. Humans possess only 46 (in 23 pairs) chromosomes. Chromosome 2, unique only to humans, has been found to have resulted from the head-to-head fusion of two ancestral chromosomes that remain separated in other primates.
And as biologists well know, two mammals that have different number of chromosomes, when bred together, produce non-viable offspring (they don’t survive in the womb or die at birth or shortly after), because of problems in meiosis, even if they closely related. If off springs ever do survive, they are sterile.
In any case, we should open our mind to the possibility of chimpanzee (or bonobo), or even orangutang, blood transfusion to humans in emergency cases wherein no other compatible human donor is around, while chimpanzees are available in the wild or in zoos or in captivity or as pets. For starters, chimpanzees in zoos or in captivity or in households as pets can undergo routine blood typing. However repulsive it may seem, such a procedure may save lives. (Send comments and suggestions to mabuhibisaya2017@gmail.com)/PN
