Science sub-journals put forward a new view: red blood cells can activate the innate immune system

Contrary to what you learned in school, transporting oxygen is not the only function of red blood cells

Nilam Mangalmurti is an intensive care doctor and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the past decade, although Mangalmurti's team discovered that blood transfusion and red blood cell surface circulation are not only functions of hemoglobin, but actually have other functions

After publishing the paper in 2018, the researchers asked some unanswered questions

The changes in surface protein levels are unexpected, because red blood cells do not have a nucleus, so they cannot change their gene expression and corresponding protein levels based on environmental cues

Mangalmurti and his colleagues also used antibody staining to prove that these morphological changes masked the CD47 antigen displayed by red blood cells

After DNA processing, human red blood cells will change shape

Removal of red blood cells from the blood circulation also seems to have an effect on anemia, which is common in patients in the intensive care unit

Mangalmurti explained that under normal circumstances, red blood cells survive in the blood circulation for 120 days, occasionally extracting DNA and then being eliminated

"The role of red blood cells in pathogen perception is often overlooked," said Sizun Jiang of Harvard Medical School.

Sugimura, who was not involved in the study, said: "This paper shows that red blood cells can be used as innate immune cells," not just oxygen transport cells

Another potential application is "development of early biomarkers for systemic inflammation

Mangalmurti agrees that there is potential for diagnosis and treatment