jan
Silver Member
- Jun 21, 2009
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- #21
Frankly I don't understand Blood types well enough to understand what that REALLY even means.
I doubt I am the only person here who is likewise ignorant about this issue.
I mean I think we all know that different bloody "types" exist, that some are universal donors, etc, but honestly what does it even mean that it is type A pos or B neg and so forth.
All I know is that it has to do with antigens and the body's ability to recognize the blood cell as being part of the person, rather than an alien cell that needs killing.
And I just had to look that up, too!
The older I get the more I realize how much I truly don't understand.
Ditto that!
And, you're correct that the blood types have to do with various antigens. O- (negative) literally means that they have zero antigens in there blood...thus the universal donor status. There is no foreign antigens in the blood to react to given a transfusion situation.
AB+ (positive) has both A and B antigens in there blood, along with the positive RH factor, thus they can recieve any type of blood due to all those antigens already being present in their blood. Them having those antigens means they won't have a negative reaction to a foreign antigen during transfusion cause they already have those antigens present in their blood.
It is really interesting to ponder how we all aquired different types of blood if indeed we as the human race all started from the same ancestors (ie Adam and Eve). Mutations? Sure, I'll buy that, but it could have just as easily been different Alien races that started their own human line back at the beginning of time. If nothing else, it's interesting to ponder.