When a person gets an organ transplant the body’s immune system will reject and attack the organ because of foreign DNA. Why does this not apply to blood transfusions?

Question

When a person gets an organ transplant the body’s immune system will reject and attack the organ because of foreign DNA. Why does this not apply to blood transfusions?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Red blood cells don’t have nuclei and therefore don’t have any DNA and generally DNA isn’t what your immune system targets. It targets foreign proteins… which, yes, would have came from translating RNA that may, or maybe not have been transcribed from DNA.