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Alright so imagine that every town has a gang. Some gangs are Crips (type A), some towns are Bloods (type B), and some towns are just ruled by local small-time gangs (type O). Everyone wants to defend their turf, so Crips will straight up murder any Bloods they see in their town and vice versa. Some towns are contested (type AB) so Crips AND Bloods can operate there. The local gangs don’t really have a side in the Crip/Blood feud so they can actually operate on anyone’s turf. But they also don’t want Crips or Bloods muscling them out so they will waste any Crips or Bloods that show up on their turf.
So some people’s blood has a bunch of crap in it, either it’s a b or a positive
You’re immune system only likes certain crap, the crap it already has
If you get blood with new crap, you’re immune system beats the shit out of that crap
Some great answers, but I am still confused why some blood types are okay with the little markers being different and others are not? Like is O just a sexy blood cell that everyone wants and A and B are like mortal enemies unless they were bonded at birth to form their fusion self of AB?
The main blood groups are the ABO and Rh systems (+ or -), so you are either A, AB, B, O with a plus or minus after. When we say someone is group A, B, AB, or O, we are talking about the proteins that are expressed on the surface of the red blood cells. Actually, A, B, AB and O all express the same protein, but A and B are cause by an enzyme that is inherited from your parents that will modify that universal protein a little bit differently, making it different enough that if you don’t make it, your body will recognize it as foreign. Why this is clinically important is we naturally form antibodies against the blood groups we don’t express – even if you’ve never been exposed to foreign blood, you have these antibodies. This is thought to be due to the interaction of some of our gut microbes with our immune system, but if you are group O, you will express antibodies to A blood and B blood. If you are group A, you will form antibodies against B blood (but not O, O is just the absence of A or B), and if you are group B, you will form antibodies against A blood. What this means is if you get an “incompatible” blood product (something you have antibodies against), those pre-formed antibodies will bind to the foreign red blood cells (RBCs) and target them for destruction. This process is called hemolysis, and all the contents inside those RBCs get released and cause major problems, usually death. This is so important that if you need blood, they will test your blood both to see what kind of blood you make, and what kind of antibodies you make. You should be able to infer the blood type from both methods, and if there is any discrepancy it needs to be investigated. Until this information is obtained, we will give “universal” blood, group O, since there is no such thing as anti-O antibodies, anyone can receive it (which is also why if you are type O, your blood is extremely important and you should consider becoming a blood donor). Once the blood type of the patient is known, they will switch to “compatible” blood, which will either be your same type, or something close to it that won’t cause any issues (ie if you are group AB, they will give A, B, or AB depending on what they have available).
The Rh (+ or -) system is a little different. You don’t naturally make antibodies to it, you need to be exposed. So in an emergency, they may give “incompatible” units, which wouldn’t cause issues in the short term, but you would now be sensitized and have antibodies against that blood group, meaning you couldn’t receive it again. This is most important for women of childbearing age. The antibodies against Rh are a different kind than the A and B antibodies, and they can cross the placenta. So if a Rh- mom is carrying an Rh+ baby, if she has been “sensitized” in the past (either from receiving an “out of group” blood transfusion or during a prior pregnancy), there can be serious complications, including death of the baby. A lot of still births used to be due to this, but now if a pregnant woman is Rh-, we automatically give a drug to prevent her from making those antibodies.
So I work in a lab and absolutely love this question cause a lot of people don’t understand how blood works. There’s a lot of other subgroups of blood also (ie. Duffy, luis, iI, Lutheran, etc.) But I won’t go into that, ill explain the 6 main ones. There’s A, B, AB, and O
Each blood type has antibodies on them, they’re little markers.
A blood types can’t have B blood types given to them because the A markers will see B markers and destroy them because they aren’t the same.
AB blood types have both markers on the cell so they can get A, B, AB or O, though you don’t want to give them just A or B blood but you can.
O blood doesn’t have any markers on the cells so they can be given to any blood type but can only get O blood type. That works basically because O has no markers on it so other blood types don’t have to destroy them but since other blood types do have markers on them they will be destroyed by the O blood (called an antibody response.)
Now for the other two important blood types, Rh. You can either be Rh positive or negative. Basically you either have little antibodies of Rh on your cell (postive) or no anitibodies on your cell (negative)
So if someone is B negative they can give to someone who is B positive and be ok. If someone is B positive and gives their blood to someone B negative their cells will be destroyed because the positive cells have the markers on them the negative cells don’t recognize. This is also why if a negative blood type mother has a positive blood type baby, the baby can die because the mothers blood recognizes it as foreign and will destroy the baby’s blood type (they have medicine to basically mask the babies blood from the mother)
Sorry if this is confusing, ill find a youtube video to source if you’d like it better explained, I did my best to explain it haha
When talking about blood groups, we are talking about 2 things. A,B,AB, and O. And then + and -. Both of these stand for proteins, or parts that make up your blood.
When giving blood to someone, it’s fine if the blood does NOT have a part that they have in their blood. But there are problems if you give someone blood that has the WRONG parts.
For the first part (A,B,AB, and O) the letters tell you what parts they have. An “A” part or A “B” part. You can also have both (AB) or none (O). Since not having a part that the person needing blood has is ok, type O can go anywhere because it has no extra parts. Type A can go to anyone with type A or AB, because in this case it’s only missing the B part. Type A can NOT go to a type B person or type O person, because not you are giving them a part they don’t have. Remember, you can only give them blood with the same parts they have or less. Never more or different parts then they have.
The next set of parts is + and -. This is a totally separate part from A,B,AB, and O but it works the same way. You either have these parts (+) or you dont (-). And again, it’s fine to give someone blood that doesnt have parts they do. But dont give them blood that has parts they don’t.
So because of that, AB+ blood has all the different parts in it and can take blood from anywhere. This blood can also only be given to other AB+’s because they are the only people that can handle blood with all the extra parts.
Type O- on the other hand, has no extra parts, and so can only get blood from other O-. But they can give blood to anyone, because they have no extra parts to cause any issues.
This was my first ELI5 post, so I really hope this helps!
Blood groups, or the ABO system is exclusive to humans. A red blood cell is a biconcave disc, in essence, a water floaty frisbee with its center sunken in (or maybe a red checker from the board game). Now imagine a donut if you will instead of a water floaty frisbee. The plain donut, glazed if you prefer, let’s say that is blood type O. Type O is recognized by its LACK of antigens. What are antigens? Anything that elicits an immune response in the human body. So glaze donut, type O. Now, take that same glazed donut and add sprinkles to it. Said glazed donut with sprinkles is type A. The sprinkles represent a specific antigen adhered to the RBC, making it slightly different than before. Swap out sprinkles on your donut for nuts. This is type B blood. An antigen, but different than A entirely. Finally, your glazed donut with sprinkles AND nuts represents your type AB. So think of blood typing to people as this: if your donut has sprinkles /nuts on it, you can only eat donuts with the SAME sprinkles and or nuts, or a glazed donut. This means type O glazed donut can only eat other glazed donuts. Eating one with sprinkles or nuts (A or B) means you’re going to trigger an immune response. This a gross oversimplification because there are antibodies to match the antigen type, but that’s a somewhat different concept altogether.
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The blood groups that people think of are basically The ABO groups. A, AB, B, or O (which is neither A nor B). There are different systems in use however like MNS, Kell, or Lewis. Since I am most familiar with ABO, this is what you get:
Imagine you have 8 people with different types of juices…
Alfred has apple juice (A-)
Burt has cranberry juice (B-)
Abby has cran-apple (AB-)
Owen one has water (O-).
These people don’t like banana in their juice (Rh-) and really dislike the other juice flavors, but are ok with water. These people also do not like banana (Rh+) in their drinks because they think it’s overpowering.
The other four people have all the same juices with banana added. These people love banana in their drinks, but are ok if their juice doesn’t have banana.
Allen has apple with banana (A+)
Bobby has cranberry with banana (B+)
Abe has cran-apple with banana (AB+)
Oliver has water with banana (O+… also gross)
Allen, Bobby, Abe, and Oliver will all drink the juices without banana, but prefer their juices with it. They just think it’s a better flavor.
Alfred and Allen will both drink apple juice or water, but only Allen will drink it with banana.
Abby and Abe will drink any of the juices, but Abby won’t drink the banana juice.
Owen and Oliver will only drink water. Owen won’t have the banana water (who would?). Everyone will drink the water because it is the least objectionable juice.
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