What Is the ABO Blood Group?

The Austrian pathologist and immunologist Carl Landsteiner proposed in 1901 that the blood has different types of medicine. The ABO blood group system is mainly named according to different agglutinogens on the surface of human red blood cells, namely blood group antigens. The antigens include A, B, and H. The red blood cells of the four blood types contain a small amount of H antigen, of which the red blood cells of blood type O have only a small amount of H antigen. The H antigen is the structural basis for the formation of A and B antigens, but the antigenicity of substance H is very weak, so generally no anti-H antibodies are present in the serum. The ABO blood group antigen is a glycolipid, and its oligosaccharide part has the function of determining antigen specificity.

Basic Information

Chinese name

ABO blood type

Foreign name

ABO blood group

discoverer

Carl Landsteiner

Presentation time

1902

O ABO blood type O blood

In the ABO blood group system, only red blood cells of type O lack the A and B antigens, so these cells can be transfused to those of type A, B and AB. Therefore, when the recipient's ABO blood group identification is difficult, the matched O-type washed red blood cells can be transfused; and at the critical moment of life-saving, when the same type of blood is insufficient or lacking, a small amount of O-type blood can be transfused to relieve the urgent need.
However, type O plasma contains anti-A and anti-B antibodies, which can sensitize or agglutinate red blood cells of type A, B, and AB, shorten their life span or immediately destroy them, which is a contraindication to blood transfusion. Therefore, O-type whole blood was once called "dangerous universal blood". Some people ignore the word "dangerous" and call O blood "omnipotent blood", which is wrong.

ABO blood group blood group distribution

Types A, B, and O each account for approximately 30%, and AB types account for approximately 10%.

ABO blood group blood group identification method

Saline agglutination is commonly used to detect blood group antigens present on red blood cells and blood group antibodies present in serum, and to determine the blood group based on the presence of antigen antibodies. The conventional methods are: positive typing: check the unknown antigen on red blood cells with standard serum of known antibodies. Reverse typing: Use standard red blood cells of known blood type to check for unknown antibodies in the serum. The results were judged: those who had agglutination of red blood cells were positive and scattered in a free state and were negative.

ABO blood group diseases of different blood types

1. Correlation between A blood type and disease

In recent years, it has been reported in China that in the population suffering from hypertension, diabetes and gastric cancer, as well as polyneuritis, acute myelitis, and periodic paralysis, the majority of people with blood group A are. Studies have found that the agglutination intensity of rabbit antisera and tumor type A erythrocytes that agglutinate with tumor glycolipids is much greater than that of type B and O red blood cells.

2. Correlation between B blood type and disease

Newborns born to pregnant women of type B are more than twice as likely to develop disease caused by group B streptococcus than pregnant women of other blood types. Perinatal pregnant women, or group B streptococci have receptors for the B antigen, and it is assumed that group B streptococcus mutations increase their affinity for the B blood group, while E. coli, which also has the B-like antigen, has blood group B And AB blood group infection rate is higher.

Correlation between 3.O blood type and disease

Statistics show that the incidence of esophageal cancer and cardia cancer is lowest in the O blood group, and it is associated with bleeding from duodenal ulcer and gastric ulcer. Viral encephalitis, myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis and Graves disease are more common. Obstetrics and gynecology survey also found that women with pregnancy-induced poisoning are also the most O-type, and are closely related to neonatal hemolytic disease. In addition, bladder cancer and prostate cancer are also common in people with blood type O. People with blood group O are also resistant to malaria.