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Definition: Blood Type |
Blood TypeNoun1. People whose blood (usually just the red blood cells) has the same antigens. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A blood type is a description of certain characteristics of blood which depend on certain substances present on the surface of red blood cells. There are 46 known antigens, each of which is described by its own system.
Two important classifications to describe blood types in humans are ABO and Rh factor. Blood transfusions from incompatible groups can cause an immunological "transfusion reaction", resulting in hemolysis, anemia, renal failure, shock, and death.
ABO
Individuals with type A blood, have red blood cells with substance A on their surface and antibodies against substance B in their blood serum.Individuals with type B blood have the opposite arrangement, substance B in the cell and antibodies to substance A in their serum. Type O people have neither substance but can form antibodies against both types. Type AB people have both substances. Because of this arrangement, type O can be safely given to any person with any ABO blood type. Type AB people can safely receive any ABO type blood.
The precise reason why people are born with antibodies against an antigen they have never been exposed to is unknown. It is thought that some bacterial antigens are similar enough to the A and B glycoproteins, that antibodies created against the bacteria will react to ABO-incompatible blood cells.
Austrian scientist Karl Landsteiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930 for his work in discovering ABO blood types.
Rhesus
Another characteristic of blood is Rhesus factor or Rh factor. Someone either has or does not have the Rh factor on the surface of their red blood cells. This is indicated as + or -. This is often combined with the ABO type. Type O+ blood is most common, though in some areas type A prevails, and there are other areas in which as many as 80 percent of the people are type B.Rh factor is named after the rhesus monkey where the factor was first identified.
Inheritance
Blood groups are inherited from both parents. The ABO blood type is controlled by a single gene with three alleles: i, A, and B.A allele gives type A, B gives type B, and i gives type O. A and B are dominant over i, so ii people have type O, AA or Ai have A, BB or Bi have type B. AB people have both phenotypes because A and B express a special dominance relationship: codominance. Thus, it is usually impossible for a type AB parent to have a type O child.
When a type AB parent has a type O child, or when one type A and one type O parent produce a type AB child, it is sometimes mistakenly assumed that the child MUST be illegitimate.
Bombay phenotype
Another possible explanation is that the child or parent who tests as type O has the very rare Bombay phenotype: they have inherited two recessive alleles of the H gene, (their blood group is Oh and their genotype is "hh"), and so do not produce the "H" protein that is the precursor to the "A" and "B" antigens. It then no longer matters whether the A or B enzymes are present or not, as no A or B antigen can be produced since the precursor antigen is not present.The rare individuals with Bombay phenotype do not express H substance on their red blood cells and therefore do not bind A or B antigens. Instead, they produce antibodies to H substance (which is present on all red cells except those of hh phenotype) as well as to both A and B antigens and are therefore compatible only with other hh donors.
Individuals with Bombay phenotype blood groups can only be transfused with blood from other Bombay phenotype individuals. Given that this condition is very rare to begin with, a person with this blood group who needs an urgent blood transfusion, may be simply out of luck, as it would be quite unlikely that any blood bank would have any in stock.
Rhesus inheritance
Rh is inherited the same way, except that it has two alleles and Rh is dominant. Rh Disease is caused by an Rh negative mother having an Rh positive child. The antibodies in the mother's blood destroy the infant's blood. At first, this was treated by transfusing the blood of infants who survived.
Other Blood Types
Other blood type systems exist to describe the presence or absence of each of the antigens. Diego positive blood is found only among East Asians and Native Americans. MNS systems gives blood types of M, N, and MN. It has use in tests of maternity or paternity. Duffy negative blood gives partial immunity to malaria. The Lutheran system describes a set of 21 antigens. Other systems include Colton, Hh or Bombay, Kell, Kidd, Lewis, Landsteiner-Wiener, P, Yt or Cartwright, XG, Scianna, Dombrock, Chido/Rodgers, Kx, Gerbich, Cromer, Knops, Indian, Ok, Raph, and JMH.Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Blood type."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| BL T | English | Blood Type | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonym: Blood TypeSynonym: blood group (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Blood Type |
| English words defined with "blood type": ABO antibodies ♦ blood typing. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "blood type": ABO Blood-Group System ♦ ORDER-CONTROL CLERK, BLOOD BANK. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I've got-- I've got a very rare blood type. (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Blood type. Your blood type (A, B, AB, or O) must match the donor's. (references) | |
Because each individual has a characteristic blood type, tests are run to be sure the donor's blood is compatible with the recipient's. (references) | ||
As a genetic disorder, Waardenburg syndrome is passed down from parent to child much like hair color, blood type, or other physical traits. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
blood type | 1,436 | abo blood type | 12 |
blood type diet | 801 | diet according to blood type | 11 |
eat right for your blood type | 157 | blood type dieting | 10 |
eating for your blood type | 126 | blood type test kit | 10 |
eat for your blood type | 69 | baby blood type | 8 |
blood type test | 50 | dieting by blood type | 7 |
eating right for your blood type | 28 | determine blood type | 7 |
eat right 4 your blood type | 27 | a- blood type | 5 |
paternity blood type | 24 | home blood type test | 3 |
determining blood type | 17 | blood type vessel | 2 |
d adamo blood type | 2 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "blood type"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Bulgarian | кръвна група. (various references) | |
Danish | blodtype (blood-group, blood-type), blodgruppe (blood-group, blood-type). (various references) | |
Dutch | bloedtype. (various references) | |
Finnish | kylmäverinen (cold-blooded, cool), kylmäverihevonen (cold blood type, heavy draught horse). (various references) | |
French | caractère sanguin. (various references) | |
German | Blutmerkmal. (various references) | |
Greek | ομάδα αίματοσ (blood group). (various references) | |
Italian | sangue freddo (coolness, nerve, phlegm, sangfroid), cavallo di sangue freddo (cold blood type, heavy draught horse). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 血液型 , 血液型 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | けつえきがた. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oodblay ypetay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | tipo sanguíneo. (various references) | |
Russian | мед)группа крови. (various references) | |
Spanish | tipo de sangre, grupo sanguíneo (blood group). (various references) | |
Swedish | kallblod (cold blood type, heavy draught horse). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-d-e-l-o-o-p-t-y" | |
-2 letters: blooped. | |
-3 letters: bloody, blooey, bolted, boodle, booted, deploy, looped, looted, peyotl, ployed, poodle, pooled, potboy, toledo, tooled. | |
-4 letters: blood, bloop, blype, booed, booty, botel, depot, dooly, dopey, lobed, looby, looed, looey, loopy, loped, obole, odyle, opted, poled, tepoy, toled, toped, toyed, typed, yodel, yodle. | |
-5 letters: belt, bled, blet, blot, bode, body, bold, bole, bolo. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
