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In: Biology
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!
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