Blood type and antigen

[joonkimdds]

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Antigen refers to foreign particles entering our bodies.
But if someone has blood type A, he carries A antigen.
His blood type is A and it's always been A so why do we call it antigen?

If blood type B enters his body, I think that's the one that should be called antigen since this person never had blood type B, and it's basically a foreign particle.

If I am wrong, and if blood type A carries A antigen, what does blood type B called in this case?



Another question I have is,
Blood type AB is called universal reciepent because it can accept any type of blood
and type O is called universal donor because it can be donated to any type of blood.

I think it's because type A has Ia, B has Ib, AB has IaIb, and O has II.
so if I add I from O to type A, it becomes IaI and that's still type A.

But can we really add I from O to type AB? that will make it have 3 allele, IaIbI and not sure if that makes sense.

 

[yankees27th]

Type O doesn't have either of the A or B antibodies. Therefore, if you get a transfusion from someone with O blood, there's nothing to react to. You're thinking a little too much into it. That's the answer to your second question. As for the first question, the A and B antigens from both sources would be antigens, but only from the other person would it be considered a foreign antigen. I hope that helps...

 

[Streetwolf]

They are always called antigens. Doesn't matter whose it is.

If you are type A then you have A antigens (cause you are type A) and you produce B antibodies. If you receive a transfusion with type B or type AB, then you are receiving B antigens. Your B antibodies will attack these B antigens. Bad news.

O is the universal donor because any blood type can accept it. Type O carries NO antigens A or B. Therefore the recipient's antibodies have nothing to react to.

AB is the universal recipient because it has NO antibodies. This is because it has both antigens, so having an antibody to either A or B would be a bad thing. When it receives any blood type, that means it is receiving an antigen (or none if it receives type O). But it has no antibodies so no reaction.

 

[bigstix808]

 

[Zubnaya Feya]

But can we really add I from O to type AB? that will make it have 3 allele, IaIbI and not sure if that makes sense.

This is not right. You are adding blood cells to blood cells. You are not breeding anyone with anyone.

Think about your immune system: for it, whatever is not "self" is "foreign." So, if you have AB blood type, your immune system recognizes A and B molecules (antigens) on blood cells as "self" and doesn't attack it. Immune system is programmed to do that early at birth by tolerance mechanisms. Therefore, an immune system recognizing A and B molecules as "self" will not attack transfused cells that have A or B. It won't attack O-tagged (O actually means that there is no A or B on red blood cells) blood cells either.

In a person with O blood type, there are no "self" A or B molecules. Immune system was not told to tolerate those. So when such a person gets A, B or AB blood, the immune system mounts an attack against A and B molecules (and, therefore, the red blood cells), thinking that A or B molecules are parts of pathogens, which try to invade the body.

Also, an antigen is : "any substance (as a toxin or enzyme) that stimulates an immune response in the body (especially the production of antibodies)" (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=antigen).

Based on that, for example, A would be an antigen in people with blood types B and O (immune system of those people will mount an attack), while it won't be an antigen in people with blood types A or AB (immune system tolerates A)

 

[bigstix808]

^^^^ excellent!! ^^^^

interesting signature btw.👍

 

[Zubnaya Feya]

^^^^ excellent!! ^^^^

interesting signature btw.👍

Do you know what it means and where is it from?

 

[bigstix808]

Do you know what it means and where is it from?

no, but my gf knows russian and read it to me and i thought it seemed interesting. care to enlighten??

 

[Zubnaya Feya]

no, but my gf knows russian and read it to me and i thought it seemed interesting. care to enlighten??

Oh) It is from a famous Russian book by Ilf and Petrov called "12 chairs." Directly it means "proletarian of intellectual work" but in the context of the book it was said sarcastically to laugh at all those "office" workers who were peasants before but all of a sudden became "intellectuals" because of change to Soviet system in 1917 lol.

Funny book to read😀

 

[bigstix808]

Oh) It is from a famous Russian book by Ilf and Petrov called "12 chairs." Directly it means "proletarian of intellectual work" but in the context of the book it was said sarcastically to laugh at all those "office" workers who were peasants before but all of a sudden became "intellectuals" because of change to Soviet system in 1917 lol.

Funny book to read😀

is there an english version?
yea, she said it was "proletarian intellecual/intellegence"


(ps: sorry to hijack thread)

 

[Zubnaya Feya]

is there an english version?
yea, she said it was "proletarian intellecual/intellegence"


(ps: sorry to hijack thread)

Yep=)
http://lib.ru/ILFPETROV/ilf_petrov_12_chairs_engl.txt