Why does our body reject other people’s donated organs and require immunosuppressants to be taken but getting someone else’s blood is ok?
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All cells have antigens on them, basically little flags that tell who those cells belong to. If your body sees a cell with flags from a different body, it recons it’s being attacked by something potentially dangerous and goes to get rid of it. So to make sure your body doesn’t destroy that organ you need medicines that slow that reaction.
Blood cells, especially red blood cells, are really easy in that matter. They don’t have as much of those flags, with the most important ones being A, B (or none) and rhesus D. So as long as that matches it’s no problem
A little addition because I know this lol, there are some more antigens but they aren’t as important especially the first blood donation. If you have had multiple blood donations it becomes a bit more tricky. The other antigens are ones you don’t have naturel antibodies against (unlike A, B and D). So the first time is no danger, as your body doesn’t know of its existence until than. The second time your body sees this though it will have antibodies and will still attack this blood. So there is a bit more to blood donation but it isn’t as important ad the AB0 system so you don’t really learn about it unless it’s your field of work.
Than there’s also the fact that blood really doesn’t survive that long, not even half a year. Your organs are supposed to last all life long.
I’m sorry if I didn’t explain this right, as English ain’t my first language. But this is what I was taught now I’m studying to become a clinical lab worker so this is gonna be my whole job lmao. I hope this helps!!
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