Scientists Have Discovered a New Set of Blood Groups (wired.com) 21
Chris Baraniuk, reporting for Wired: The unborn baby was in trouble. Its mother's doctors, at a UK hospital, knew there was something wrong with the fetus's blood, so they decided to perform an emergency C-section many weeks before the baby was due. But despite this, and subsequent blood transfusions, the baby suffered a brain hemorrhage with devastating consequences. It sadly passed away. It wasn't clear why the bleeding had happened. But there was a clue in the mother's blood, where doctors had noticed some strange antibodies. Some time later, as the medics tried to find out more about them, a sample of the mother's blood arrived at a lab in Bristol run by researchers who study blood groups. They made a startling discovery: The woman's blood was of an ultrarare type, which may have made her baby's blood incompatible with her own.
It's possible that this prompted her immune system to produce antibodies against her baby's blood -- antibodies that then crossed the placenta and harmed her child, ultimately leading to its loss. It may seem implausible that such a thing could happen, but many decades ago, before doctors had a better understanding of blood groups, it was much more common. Through studying the mother's blood sample, along with a number of others, scientists were able to unpick exactly what made her blood different, and in the process confirmed a new set of blood grouping -- the "Er" system, the 44th to be described. You're probably familiar with the four main blood types -- A, B, O, and AB. But this isn't the only blood classification system. There are many ways of grouping red blood cells based on differences in the sugars or proteins that coat their surface, known as antigens.
The grouping systems run concurrently, so your blood can be classified in each -- it might, for instance, be type O in the ABO system, positive (rather than negative) under the Rhesus system, and so on. Thanks to differences in antigens, if someone receives incompatible blood from a donor, for example, the recipient's immune system may detect those antigens as foreign and react against them. This can be highly dangerous, and is why donated blood needs to be a suitable match if someone is having a transfusion. On average, one new blood classification system has been described by researchers each year during the past decade. These newer systems tend to involve blood types that are mind-bogglingly rare but, for those touched by them, just knowing that they have such blood could be lifesaving. This is the story of how scientists unraveled the mystery of the latest blood system -- and why it matters.
It's possible that this prompted her immune system to produce antibodies against her baby's blood -- antibodies that then crossed the placenta and harmed her child, ultimately leading to its loss. It may seem implausible that such a thing could happen, but many decades ago, before doctors had a better understanding of blood groups, it was much more common. Through studying the mother's blood sample, along with a number of others, scientists were able to unpick exactly what made her blood different, and in the process confirmed a new set of blood grouping -- the "Er" system, the 44th to be described. You're probably familiar with the four main blood types -- A, B, O, and AB. But this isn't the only blood classification system. There are many ways of grouping red blood cells based on differences in the sugars or proteins that coat their surface, known as antigens.
The grouping systems run concurrently, so your blood can be classified in each -- it might, for instance, be type O in the ABO system, positive (rather than negative) under the Rhesus system, and so on. Thanks to differences in antigens, if someone receives incompatible blood from a donor, for example, the recipient's immune system may detect those antigens as foreign and react against them. This can be highly dangerous, and is why donated blood needs to be a suitable match if someone is having a transfusion. On average, one new blood classification system has been described by researchers each year during the past decade. These newer systems tend to involve blood types that are mind-bogglingly rare but, for those touched by them, just knowing that they have such blood could be lifesaving. This is the story of how scientists unraveled the mystery of the latest blood system -- and why it matters.
Why it matters (Score:4, Insightful)
Or not. Actually, it DOES matter to the tiny minority of people who have these rare blood groups. But for the general population, the 'classical' system works well enough for transfusions. But with all the trouble we are having keeping blood banks stocked up, and the possibility of them incurring additional costs, is it worth it to society in general?
Re:Why it matters (Score:4, Interesting)
But with all the trouble we are having keeping blood banks stocked up, and the possibility of them incurring additional costs, is it worth it to society in general?
I'd guess this juice isn't worth the squeeze, particularly since full blood transfusions are a thing of the very long long past. These days donated blood is separated out into multiple products, each with different use cases. Most people line up nicely to the existing system given how we apply those products in practice. If the masses didn't line up this well, we'd have mass deaths on epic scale caused by "surgeons", just like there were during the medical-super-fun-times leading up to the early 1900s. We're (generally) a lot less stupid than we used to be about this sort of thing -- if the system was horridly busted and in desperate need of renovation, it would have been identified long ago. Applied statistics in medicine aren't exactly new anymore.
But, hey, yea, found a new thingie. Hooray for the small percent this will help... I guess.. I mean, at some point modern medicine is just money vs darwinism, so it starts to get political after a point.
Scikle cell anemia treatment (Score:3)
This still uses total blood replacement to provide temporary relief from the condition.
https://www.blood.co.uk/why-gi... [blood.co.uk]
Re: (Score:3)
I'd guess this juice isn't worth the squeeze, particularly since full blood transfusions are a thing of the very long long past. These days donated blood is separated out into multiple products, each with different use cases.
The thing is aside from trauma and burn medicine most of those use-cases are either obsolete or going to be. A lot of the small proteins we used to extract from plasma (like Factor VII) have been replaced with recombinant products synthesized in a bioreactor. This is because it turned out it's cheaper and easier to grow the product without any contaminants than try and filter them out (prions being the most challenging). The other breakthrough has been things like cell salvage, where you take all the blood
Re:Why it matters (Score:5, Interesting)
It matters because O-negative blood, while it's considered the "universal blood type" is not actually universal. There is a very small group of people where O-negative is fatal.
An even smaller group of people (less than 50 people are known to have it, in total, and of them only 9 are known donors) have Rh-null, which is considered "golden blood" because it truly can be used for any recipient, but is restricted to those where O-negative is not suitable.
This is considered extremely rare and those who have that blood are asked to give generously because each donation literally saves lives.
So yes, rare blood types exist who fall outside the standard ABO typing system and thus have to rely not just on rare blood banks but have to refrain from certain activities because obtaining rare blood is difficult - each of those 9 donors can only donate every so often and the blood is highly perishable so there is very little on hand and it's often hours away.
Re: (Score:1)
This is 2022
Not according to those of us who care women's rights. For that group, which the majority of us belong to, we just got sent back to the 50's. But hey, if you want to pretend that the vocal minority represents the views of the majority, have at it. Just don't be upset when the rest of us dismiss your bullshit opinion for what it is.
Re: (Score:2)
Another instance is the need for 'African' blood (Score:5, Interesting)
Required for the treatment of the victims of sickle cell anaemia, most of whose victims are of African ethnic origin, it turns out that it is important to use well matched blood for the full blood replacement that provides the treatment.
https://www.blood.co.uk/why-gi... [blood.co.uk]
Aliens! (Score:2)
"The woman's blood was of an ultrarare type, which may have made her baby's blood incompatible with her own. "
Type L? (lizard)
Re: (Score:3)
Type L? (lizard)
Zuckerberg's mom?
Re: (Score:2)
She's British, she's probably of blood type M (Monarchy).
Just wondering (Score:4, Interesting)
Have these blood types existed in humanity all along and we're just getting better at differentiating and classifying? Or have they come about as a result of ongoing evolution and diversity?
I know this is probably unlikely, but I'm also curious if some of these blood-type variations might be a response to environmental factors such as chemical pollution.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Much of this is just better tracking. Decades ago, someone with a rare blood type might die from an apparently good match and would just be listed as having an unknown hemolytic condition and nobody notices. For example, people with the Bombay type test as type O when using the conventional typing methods.
The total population of rh-null people is thought to be about 50, so it would be easy to not notice in the past.
Re: (Score:3)