What is agglutinin?
Agglutinin is a substance in the blood that connects the individual molecules together and creates a large mass. It is part of the reaction of the immune system to foreign bodies such as bacteria and viruses, recognition and rapid bonds to proteins on the invasive organism. Interaction is similar to antibody-antiben relationship. Some types of agglutinin are actually antibodies, while other agglutinin substances are lectins, a type of protein that easily binds sugars.
Když se aglutininy uvolní v suspenzi, vážou se na specifické částice a spojí je do jediné hmoty. Then the mass drops to the bottom of the suspension, leading to a clean fluid. This process, known as agglutination, can be used to identify the cause of the infection. It can also be used to identify an individual's blood type.
One of the tasks is performed by agglutinins to prevent the bloodstream from entering foreign blood types. For example, people with blood type A have Agglutinin in their blood to destroy Blood cells of type B. Similarly, if the blood type B is to, is present in the bloodn agglutinin A in order to destroy type AC cells. A person with blood type O will have both agglutinin A and B in the blood to prevent type A and type B blood cells into the bloodstream. Individuals with blood AB AB do not even have agglutinin in the blood.
When the body is exposed to cold temperatures, cold agglutinins bind to red blood cells and force them to cluster together. Normally there are low quantities of cold aglutinins in the blood. During the infection, cold aglutinin levels rise, leading to problems such as pale skin and numbness in their hands and legs. As the skin warms, the symptoms generally disappear. In extreme circumstances, blood clusters can block the blood vessels that give blood into the ears, nose, toes and fingers, resulting in damage to the tissue similar to Frostbite. In some cases, tissue damage may lead to gangrene.
Usually, a type of infection causes elevated levels of cold aglutinin can be determined. This is done by measurementThe amount of cold aglutinins in the blood after a series of dilution. In a healthy person, the final dilution has generally non -recoverable levels of cold aglutinins - the ratio of about 1 to 40. Higher dilution generally indicates conditions such as pneumonia, infectious mononucleosis or hepatitis C. Extremely high dilution such as 1 to 1,000 could indicate the presence of more serious condition.