(a) What is a transfusion reaction and why does it happen? (b) What are its possible consequences?
(a) What is a transfusion reaction and why does it happen? (b) What are its possible consequences?
In humans, blood contains two major components namely plasma and blood corpuscles. One of the corpuscles is RBC and its membrane is coated with two types of glycoproteins called antigens/agglutinogens. There are two types of antigens which are designated as A and B. The human blood group is classified based on the type of antigen present on the RBC.
Antibodies are proteins present in blood plasma. There are two types of antibodies or agglutinins. They are designated as ‘antibody a’ and ‘antibody b’ which are specific to antigen A and antigen B respectively. The blood of an individual does not contain the same type of antigens and antibodies because antibody ‘a’ agglutinates antigen ‘A’ and antibody ‘b’ agglutinates antigen ‘B’.
| Blood Group | Antigens | Antibodies |
| A | A | b |
| B | B | a |
| AB | A and B | no antibodies |
| O | no antigens | both a and b |
Hence, human blood is divided into four groups namely A, B, AB and O based on the antigen present on RBC.
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