Skip to main content

Blood Groups

Blood Groups


Hey guys, you must have heard people saying "yeah I have AB+ blood group" or " I have the rarest blood group O-" and any sort of these dialogues. But do you actually know what the true meaning of the term Blood Group is.



 What is Blood Group??
Blood Group is nothing but the type of antibodies and antigens present or absent in your RBC ( Red Blood Cells ). Antigens are located on the surface of your RBC and antibodies in the plasma. It is this combination of antigens and antibodies which decide which blood group you belong to. You inherit these combinations from your parents. But this does not mean that you will have exactly same blood group as your parents.

Discovery of Blood Groups
Earlier the transfusion of blood from one person to the other would lead to deaths due to incorrect transfer.It was not until 1901, when the Austrian, Karl Land Steiner discovered human blood groups that blood transfusion became safer.

Mixing blood from two individuals can lead to blood clumping and agglutination. The dumped red cells can release toxins and cause toxic reactions. This can have fatal consequences. Karl  Land Steiner discovered that blood clumping is an immunological reaction which occurs when the receiver of the blood transfusion has antibodies against the donor blood cells.

Karl Land Steiner's work made it possible to determine blood groups and thus made the way for blood transfusions to be carried out safely. For this discovery Karl was also awarded with Nobel prize in 1930.

How do we study Blood Groups ?
Many scientists and researchers have proposed several theories for the study of Blood Groups.
But the most important and common of them is the ABO and RH system.

ABO System
According to this system there are only four types of blood group i.e. A, B, AB and O.




Blood Group A
This means that you have A type of antigens on the surface of RBC and B type of antibodies in the plasma.

Blood Group B
This means that you have B type of antigens on the surface of RBC and A type of antibodies in the plasma.

Blood Group AB
This means that you have both A and B type of antigens on the surface of RBC and no A or B antibodies in the plasma.

Blood Group O
This means that you have no A or B antigens on the surface of RBC and have both A and B antibodies in the plasma.


For knowing more about blood groups and also to know more about the RH system subscribe to our newsletter. Hope you liked this article and if you loved this then do share it with your friends and teachers.

Thank you for spending your valuable time reading this article.

You may also like these articles by High School Pedia :

Labels:

Comments

Post a comment

Popular Posts

Anode Ray Experiment

→Anode ray experiment was conducted by E Goldstein. →These rays are also known as canal rays. →This experiment helped in the discovery of the proton. Apparatus Used A discharge tube  was taken in which there were 2 electrodes i.e. Anode(+ve) and the cathode (-ve). The tube was filled with an inert gas. A perforated or porous cathode was used. A layer of zinc sulphide was placed at the back of the cathode. There was a vacuum pump in the tube. High voltage (5000v-10000v) was allowed to flow through the system. It was observed that when the gas was at 1atm(atmospheric pressure ) no change was seen in the tube.  When the   pressure   was decreased inside the tube, a glow could be seen at the back side of the cathode.
2 comments
Read more

Isotopes, Isobars and Isotones

Isotopes These are elements which have the same atomic number but different atomic mass . They have the same atomic number because the number of protons that are inside their nuclei remains the same. But, they have different atomic mass because the number of neutrons that are also inside their nuclei is different. As the number of protons inside nuclei remains same, therefore the overall charge of the elements also remains same as in isotopes: no of protons = no of electrons . Hence, as isotopes overall charge remains neutral, therefore their chemical properties will also remain identical.   Therefore, Isotopes are chemically same but physically different.
2 comments
Read more

The Inverse & Reciprocal TRIGONOMETRIC Functions

So, this is my second post on trigonometry. In this post we're gonna cover the reciprocal and the inverse Trigonometric functions. If you haven't seen my first post you should definitely view it as it covers the basics of Trigonometry The Reciprocal Trigonometric Functions The reciprocal Trigonometric function of Sine is Cosecant, of Cosine is Secant & for Tangent it is Cotangent. Cosecant (Csc θ = 1/Sin θ) or (Hypotenuse/Opposite) Secant (Sec θ = 1/Cos θ) or (Hypotenuse/Adjacent) Cotangent (Cot θ = 1/Tan θ) or (Adjacent/Opposite) We can also represent Tan θ in another way. As Tan θ = opposite/adjacent  & Sin θ = opposite/hypotenuse  & Cos θ = adjacent/hypotenuse ∴ Tan θ = Sin θ/Cos θ (The hypotenuses cancel out) As Cot θ = 1/Tan θ  So, we can also represent Cot θ as Cos θ/Sin θ.
1 comment
Read more

Rutherford Alpha Ray Scattering Experiment

Rutherford Alpha Ray Scattering Experiment Hey, Guys, most of you might have heard about the alpha ray scattering experiment and if you want to know in detail about Rutherford's model and the experiment he conducted, this is the right place for you... But first: Things You Must Know Some basic information that will help you understand rutherford experiment properly: Proton is a sub-atomic particle which is positively charged and has a mass of 1u. Alpha particles are helium atom with a charge of +2 as they have lost 2 electrons. Alpha particles have an atomic mass  of 4u. Gold is highly malleable and can be beaten into very thin sheets. Experiment Rutherford conducted his experiment in the following way: Rutherford took a very thin gold foil and bombarded it with high energy alpha particles. He placed a layer of zinc sulphide on the walls where the experiment was taking place because when alpha particles strike zinc sulphide layer, it results i
18 comments
Read more

Cathode Ray Experiment

This experiment was conducted by J.J. Thomson (Sir Joseph John Thomson) in the year 1897. This experiment proved that atom is made up of fundamental particles which are much smaller than the smallest atom 'hydrogen' This experiment helped to discover electron. According to J.J. Thomson, the cathode rays consisted of very light, small and negatively charged particles. He named the particles "corpuscles" which were later known as electrons
2 comments
Read more

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Europe's biggest club soccer competition, The UEFA Champions League, takes place every year. The competition begins in September and ends in May. It is a classic tournament following a round-robin format after which the top teams qualify to the knockout stages. It includes 32 best clubs in different countries of Europe. Obviously teams from major countries like England, Spain, France, Germany and Italy qualify easily while teams from smaller countries like Ireland, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark have to go through a qualifying round. The teams who win the leagues in their countries qualify directly while in some countries even the second, third and fourth placed teams also qualify. Sometimes a team may qualify in the Champions League because they finished in the top-four. These clubs may or may not qualify through their leagues but their good performance may help them qualify. Even the champions of The UEFA Europa League, another prestigious league
Post a comment
Read more

Important Mathematical Constants!

Important Mathematical Constants Mathematical constants are those numbers that are special and interesting because they come up in the various fields of mathematics like geometry, calculus etc. These mathematical constants are usually named after the person who discovered it and they are represented by a symbol that is usually picked up from the Greek alphabet. Mathematical constants are by definition very important. In this article we will take a look at certain mathematical constants that are more commonplace than others. 1.       π (pi) or Archimedes constant (~3.14159):   π is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. This is probably the most popular mathematical constant. So π is the circumference of the circle whose diameter is 1 unit. You might have seen it popping up when calculating the area of a circle (πr 2 ) or the circumference of a circle (2πr). It has many uses throughout mathematics from calculating the area of certain shap
Post a comment
Read more