Blood Groups: Its Importance In Blood Transfusions

Blood groups: its importance in blood transfusions

 The discovery of blood groups meant a great advance in modern science, not only for their study but also to apply in the medical area, today we can know with certainty what type of blood is compatible with ours and which not with aSimple analysis, this facilitated the realization of blood transfusions since we can prevent the person who receives the donated blood rejecting it and complications occur in it. But all this did not occur overnight, there were quite a few mistakes made before knowing why people did not positively capture the donated blood, in this essay we will see the process of how the blood groups came to be known,and its contribution in the health area.

Before knowing the existence of blood groups, blood transfusions were made with blood of other species, without knowledge of the serious problems that it can do to suffer from the patient who receives it, in 1873 the blood transfusions of other species were prohibited afterMay a young man die from this. Karl Landsteiner was the person who discovered blood groups, one of his research fields was blood genetics.

He noted that when mixing the blood of two people he brought together forming visible lumps, analyzed the blood of 22 people, including his and that of 5 collaborators from his laboratory, separate the blood serum, wash the red blood cells and submerged them in serumphysiological saline, then rehearses each serum with the red blood cells obtained and tabulated the results.

With all this he discovered 3 types of red blood cells: A, B, or, they gave rise to agglutinating reactions, these findings made them in Vienna 1901. 2 years later 2 of his disciples: Alfredo de Castello and Adriano Sturli, analyzed 155 samples and discovered the fourth group: AB, this has no binder reaction.

Blood has antibodies that act as a defense against certain antigens, each blood group has its antibodies and its specific antigen, example: Type A blood has antigen A and antibodies B. It is for this reason that some blood types are not compatible with another other than the same type. 1911, Ottenberg called the group as a universal donor or for lack of antigens, in 1908 Epstein and Ottenberg suggest that blood groups are hereditary. And in 1910, and. von Dungern and L. Hirszfeld discover that the inheritance of these blood groups follows Mendel’s laws with a dominant pattern for types A and B.  In 1940 another antigen called RH factor was discovered, this was found in the serum of an immunized rabbit with the blood of a monkey of India, the macacus rhesus, from this monkey comes the name of the antigen. 

If the fetus of a pregnant woman who has no RH (RH-) factor presents the RH (RH+) factor, the fetus immunize the mother causing antibodies against the fetus to be created and in a second pregnancy these antibodies attack the new fetus producing producingan abortion, or complications in the blood of the fetus that can lead to death. It should be noted that with the discovery of the RH factor the blood group considered universal donor becomes O- since it does not have antigens of any kind.

All these findings have multiple uses today, but, the most important of all without a doubt is safe blood transfusion, since 1914 it was possible to make a successful blood transfusion using the data of Landsteiner’s research and its disciples. From this moment on, the techniques to carry out this procedure were polished, all this we owe it to Landsteiner since the basis planted for this possible.