Can We Chill Platelets As Well As Wine?

Platelets are better served at room temperature than when refrigerated — this has long been recommended because refrigerated platelets disappear rapidly from blood after transfusion. This accelerated platelet clearance has been ascribed to platelet shape changes with platelet chilling. In the Scientific Committee on Transfusion Medicine session chaired by Dr. Walter Dzik of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Dr. Tom Stossel, also of MGH, describes recent work that indicates that there is no relationship between platelet shape and platelet clearances; rather, chilling platelets causes CP1b± clusters, resulting in removal of the platelets by phagocytosis. Further work reveals that covering exposed acetylglucosamine residues with a galactose in a 1,4 linkage prevents such phagocytosis in a mouse model. Galactosylation does not impair platelet function by in vitro measurements, and by monitoring lectin binding to platelets, has been shown to be stable over two weeks of refrigeration. For these reasons, platelets galactosylation appears to be simple and practical, and thus a possible alternative platelet storage to the currently approved process of seven day platelet storage at room temperature.

Related glycobiology presentations in the Scientific Committee on Transfusion Medicine session (held 10:15 a.m. – 12:00 noon today and 9:45 – 11:30 a.m. tomorrow) include a talk by Dr. Martin Olsson highlighting the glycobiology of the red blood cell – and attempts to modify blood group carbohydrate residues with the aim to provide an ABO-universal blood supply, and a presentation by Dr. Megan Sykes, who discusses the potential role of mixed chimerism for surmounting current barriers to xenotransplantation.