Just wondered why there are different blood groups in humans.
Also, are there different blood types in, say pigs or elephants, or lizards etc.?
Also, are there different blood types in, say pigs or elephants, or lizards etc.?
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Blood types
- Thread starter tansy
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Going from memory here -_-
In all living beings, a lot of proteins are placed in the cell membrane (i.e., so that things from OUTSIDE the cell can touch those proteins..)
In all eukaryotes (plants, animals), those proteins often have complicated sugar chains attached to them, placed on the outside of the cell.
The exact configuration of those sugar chains is pretty variable between individuals. Thus, the sugar chains can act as an identifier of "this cell belongs to me, and this cell doesn't". If a cell is recognized as not belonging to the host organism, it may be destroyed by white blood cells etc.
The configuration of your sugar chains determines your blood type.. note that there are a lot more factors than just the ABO types that you normally hear about.
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So yes, other animals also have blood types, although they may not have configurations that correspond to the ABO system for example. And we have them to accuratly recognize "foreign" material (having foreign material living inside your body would normally be a bad thing... it's only in modern days with organ and blood transplants that it may be helpful..)
edit: bit of wikipediaing tells me that some of the other more 'unknown' blood types are also caused by other chemical/biological compounds being present or absent in the cell membrane. But the concept remains the same.
edit2: or to be precise: The actual differences between people's blood come about due to random mutations or other selection pressures (e.g., some blood types make you immune to malaria). But the negative effects from a blood transfusion when blood of the wrong type is used are there to protect against foreign material. The system is in place to destroy small amounts of foreign material; it's not evolved to handle large blood transfusions, and thus bad things happen..
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Thanks Mystman
So do you happen to know how many human blood types there are...I know there's one that only about 12%? of the world pop has? I think?
Is it possible that new blood types can develop in humans? Are there any instances of that since people knew about blood types?
I know that your blood type is dependent on your parents'...eg, I don't think that a child can have a paricular blood if one of their parents isn't that one?
So do you happen to know how many human blood types there are...I know there's one that only about 12%? of the world pop has? I think?
Is it possible that new blood types can develop in humans? Are there any instances of that since people knew about blood types?
I know that your blood type is dependent on your parents'...eg, I don't think that a child can have a paricular blood if one of their parents isn't that one?
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Well, any mutation that affects the proteins/lipids/sugars that are presented on the outside of the cellmembrane can create a new variation.
The most well known variations are A/B/AB/O, and being Rhesus negative or positive. Various variations can be combined in a single individual, so you can be B Rh+ or B Rh-.
According to wikipedia, there are some 30 "common" groups of variations. So if they would be totally free to be combined, with each trait having 2 variations, that would make 2^30 = 1 073 741 824 blood types
Ofcourse, not every combination is actually possible (e.g. 3 #10 chromosomes with a different mutation can not be present in 1 individual), and not every combination actually exists, so the actual number is probably a bit lower...
As for new blood types being developed through new mutations: not that I know of, but it probably happened. The thing is: a new mutation type won't spread very fast (2 kids per generation or something..), so the amount of people with this new mutation would be really small. And of that mutation group, someone would need to be a blood donor/acceptor. And with that donor/acceptor group, there would need to be some serious side effects/death. And then a doctor would need to think "maybe this death was caused by some unknown blood group". And then a bunch of scientists would need to be able to actually locate this unknown blood group...
all in all, a pretty unlikely chain of events. But I'm not saying that it hasn't happened.
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keith99
sola dosis facit venenum
Actually no, it is very common for children to have a differnet blood type.
In the ABO scheme A and B are Dominant to O. So to have type O you must get the O gene from both parents. But you can be type A (or B) if you get that gene from either one or both parents. To be type AB you must get an A gene from one parent and B gene from the other.
If both parents are Type O the Child will be type O
If one parent is O and One is AB the child will be either type A or type B (an interesting case, the child can not be the same as either parent).
If you then have Type A and Type B parents from the kind of union above then each of them as an O gene. They can have children of any of the possible ABO blood types. O, A, B or AB.
Draw a chart and work it out. Not really much harder than smooth or wrinkled peas.
BTW type AB is much rarer that 12% of the population.
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jayem
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Correct. And a child having a different blood type than the mother becomes important with the RhD antigen. There are 5 Rh antigens, the D being the most significant. When someone tests Rh negative, it means they don't have the D antigen. If a woman is Rh negative and her male partner is Rh positive, there is at least a 50% chance the fetus will be Rh positive. Some fetal blood cells will leak into her circulation and she'll develop antibodies to the D antigen on those cells. It won't affect a first or second pregnancy, but if she continues to have Rh + children, her antibodies eventually cross the placenta and attack the red blood cells of an Rh + fetus. It can lead to a miscarriage, or a sevely ill, anemic newborn (Rhesus disease.) That's why Rh - women are given Rho(D) antibodies which will bind to and lead to the destruction of any fetal red blood cells leaking into her bloodstream. This prevents her from making the damaging anti-RhD antibodies which attack the fetus.
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Goodness - I didnt realise that that was what causes Rhesus disease, and can also cause miscarriages. Scary really, because i thought that most diseases passed on from parent to foetus (except in instances such as Rubella in the pregnant mother, causing blindness or whatever in the child), were genetic, in that one or more parent either had a disease, or was a carrier.
One wouldnt think that (what i assume to be normal healthy blood types) could actually cause harm to one's offspring (but then, I dont know anything really about this sort of stuff)
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