ABO Blood Group System

In the 1660's,scientisits experimented with transfusing blood.

Richard Lower transfused blood between dogs with some success. Then he injected lambs blood into humans. A patient died and blood transfusion was outlawed. In 1818 James Blundell transfused blood to a woman from her husband and it worked. But other patients died from transfusions. It was 1875 when a German named Leonard Landois mixed lamb red cells with serum from a dog, incubated at 37 degrees C and learned why blood mixing can be fatal: Mixing blood from two individuals can lead to blood clumping or agglutination.

The clumped red cells can crack and cause toxic reactions. Karl Landsteiner discovered that blood clumping was an immunological reaction which occurs when the receiver of the blood transfusion has antibodies against the donor blood cells. Karl LAndsteiner's work made it possible to determine blood types and thus paved the way for blood transfusions to be carried out safely.

The ABO system is considered the most important of all blood group systems due to the presence of naturally occurring alloantibodies.

Rh Blood Group System

The Rhesus system was first discovered in 1939/1940.

During 1939 Levine and Stetson were investigating a case of Haemolytic Disease of the Newborn (HDN) where the mother had been immunised by an antigen of parental origin which the foetus was carrying. The mothers' antibody reacted with the cells of the foetus.

In 1940- Landsteiner and Weiner made an antibody by injecting Rhesus monkey red cells into rabbits. They called this antibody anti-Rhesus (Rh). It reacted with the monkey cells and also agglutinated 85% of samples from white New Yorkers. The antibody was shown to be the same as that encountered by Levine and Stetson.

The Rhesus System is perhaps the most complicated of the blood groups systems, it consists of around 50 antigenic characters, the most important in the system being D antigen. The Rh system is second only to the A and B antigens in its clinical significance. This is mainly due to the high immumogenicity of the D antigen. Approximately 80% of RhD negative individuals will produce anti-D if transfused RhD positive blood. A small amount as 3-4 ml is enough incompatible blood to cause severe transfusion reaction in a patient with anti-D.

Other antigens in the Rhesus system which are clinically significant are c, E, C, e these are also immunogenic and a regular cause of HDN.

Most other Rhesus antigens are either very weakly immunogenic or rare.

 

Ordering Information

CE Marked

Code	Product	Quantity
52129	Anti A monoclonal	10 mL
52130	Anti B monoclonal	10 mL
52131	Anti A, B monoclonal	10 mL
52132	Anti D IgG and IgM monoclonal	10 mL

 

 

 

 

 

 

Non-CE Marked

Code	Product	Quantity
52036	Anti A monoclonal	10 mL
52037	Anti B monoclonal	10 mL
52038	Anti A, B monoclonal	10 mL
52039	Anti D IgG and IgM monoclonal	10 mL
52040	Anti D IgM monoclonal	10 mL
52041	Anti Human Globulin (Coombs)	10 mL
52042	Bovine Albumin 22%	10 mL
52043	Bovine Albumin 30%	10 mL