Question

1.     Why is it important to know a person's blood type before giving him or her a transfusion?

2.     What are antigens and antibodies? How are they involved in the body's response to incompatible blood?

3.     Describe the immune response that occurs when an individual receives a transfusion of incompatible blood.

4.     People with blood type O are considered to be universal donors. That is, they can donate blood to all other blood types. Using your knowledge of blood types and the immune system, explain why this is true.

5.     People with type AB blood are considered to be universal recipients. That is, they can receive blood from all other blood types. Explain why this is true using your knowledge of blood types and the immune system.

Answer 1

ans-1 blood transfusion is a transferring  of blood from one person to another's body . it occur due to many medical factors.

so, it is important to know blood type before transfusion to prevent clumping which can be fatal.

if a patient gets a blood of wrong blood type or if he is incompatible then it can be fatal to the patient because th patient body will start producing antibody againest the antigens present on the transfused blood cell and start causing clumping. this is immune response of a body.

ans-2 there are four type of blood group phenotypes present which is A,B,AB,O.

the blood group is determined by antigen present on the surface of blood cell which is H antigen for the formation of A and B antigen.

so, antigen are substance which is capable to stimualte the production of immune response againest it. the antigen which is present on the body own cells then it is called as self antigen.

Antibody are the proteinous structure or immunoglobulins which are produced in the body in response to the antigen .

if the person has blood group A means he has antigen A over the RBC and it make antibody againest B blood group.

if the person has blood group B then B antigen over the RBC and it make antibody againest A blood group.

IF the person has blood group AB thenn both antigen are present AB, it cannot produce antibody againest as both antigen are present.so it is universal recipient also.

person with O blood group has no antigen over RBC. it make antibody againest both A,B blood group.

for example- a patient has a blood group A it means he has A antigen present and make antibody againest B group. if a patient transfused with blood group B then he has already antibodies present againest b blood group in his plasma, this case will generate immune response by binding to the antigen of b bllod group and start causing clumping.

so it is very important to chech the blood group type properely before transfusion.

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