Researchers at the University of Vermont have discovered two new proteins
on red blood cells that confirm the testable existence of two new blood
types. It's an important discovery, one that'll greatly reduce the risk
of incompatible blood transfusions among tens of thousands of people.
But what we were more struck by in this press release was the fact that
these two new blood types--named Junior and Langereis--bring the total
number of recognized blood types up to 32. 32!
Turns out there's much more than just A, B, AB, and O: there are now
28 other, rarer types, often named after the person in whom they were
discovered. These rarer types are identified by the presence of a
particular group of antigens (substances that tell your immune system to
send out antibodies), and many, like the Kell and MNS blood types, can
actually be concurrent with more common blood types like A or O.
But the discovery of new blood types is pretty rare; the last new one
was discovered more than a decade ago. So it's big news that two were
discovered at the same time. The Junior and Langereis groups are
particularly prevalent in East Asia, especially Japan. Says University
of Vermont biologist Bryan Ballif: "More than 50,000 Japanese are
thought to be Junior negative and may encounter blood transfusion
problems or mother-fetus incompatibility."
The study appears in the February issue of Nature Genetics.
source: popsci.com
2 comments:
so we can't say that O is universal donor any longer, right? considering we have so many proteins on the our red blood cells.
yap, #quite sure
time does change everything
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