Identify Blood Groups

Everyone has heard of the blood types A, B, AB, and O, but not everyone understands what these letters mean. A blood type or blood group is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells. When you receive a blood transfusion, doctors have to make sure it is a match to your blood type, if not it can kill you (Wayman, 2012). The blood types A, B, AB, and O are known as the ABO blood group (Wayman, 2012). This blood group is believed to have evolved around 20 million years ago (Wayman, 2012). Our bodies produce antibodies which are used to fight infection, but antibodies can be used to also be used to identify blood types. Antibodies will bind to only one type of structure on a cell, which is known as an antigen (Staff, 2015). These are useful when identifying blood types (Staff, 2015). A blood type is identified by the presence or absence of two …show more content…
This was important discovery for the concept of blood transfusions (Blood Group, 2015). In England during this time blood transfusions were tested on dogs (Blood Group, 2015). At the time these transfusion were taking place by Jean Baptiste Denis, a physician to King Louis XIV of France. He had been performing blood transfusions by transfusing lambs blood into humans (Blood Group, 2015). During these transfusions he documented the reactions that the patients were having, and these are considered to be the first recorded accounts of we know as hemolytic transfusion reactions (Blood Group, 2015). These reactions are caused by someone is given the wrong blood type. It wasn’t until someone died from this type of transfusion until it was considered against the law. After this tragic loss little progress was made on blood transfusions or blood typing for the next 150