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[newbrain]

Anyone know more about this study? Is bad to donate blood because of this?
You can become vunerable to COVID for example.

https://pubmed.ncbi....ih.gov/8488538/

[Dorian Grey]

This appears to be a short term phenomenon, following aggressive donation.  

 

"The patients donated 2 units of blood with an interval of 3 to 4 days between donations."  

 

My blood bank limits donations to once every 8 weeks or so.  

 

"Flow cytometric analysis revealed that blood donation by normal donors and cancer patients had no effect on the proportion of B, T, and natural killer (NK) cells"

 

OK, no harm done so far.  

 

"Only the total number of lymphocytes was significantly decreased in the normal donors on Day 12 after donation"

 

Here's our flag!  Lymphocytes are important!  

 

"A significant depression of NK cell function (88% and 74% of predonation levels) was observed in normal donors on Days 2 and 5 after donation"

 

This ain't good...  But wait!  

 

"on Day 12, the activity was again normal."

 

Looks like blood donation may affect immune potential, though quite briefly. 

 

But what about those lymphocytes?  

 

https://www.frontier...2012.00271/full

 

Homeostasis of lymphocytes and monocytes in frequent blood donors

 

"Together, these findings provide an in vivo glimpse into the homeostasis of lymphocytes and monocytes in the blood at different ages, and support the notion that regeneration of lymphocytes and monocytes is robust throughout adult life up to the early 70s."

 

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Looks like blood donation may be unwise during periods of high COVID activity, especially if you have a lot of potential exposure.  

 

Looks also like the immune system rebounds within a couple of weeks, so no need to panic if you've just got home from the blood bank.  You'll be good as new in a fortnight.