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 When blood is given intraveneously  Usually donated blood  Transfusions are given for:  Blood loss due to injury  Surgery  To supplement your own blood

 Blood cells have their own antigens  Genetically determined proteins  Allows us to determine “self”; a form of self defense  Transfusions must be compatible w/recipient  Those individuals with the same antigens

 What happens if the blood is incompatible? ◦ Your body will assume the transfused blood is an invader  Antibodies will bind to the (foreign) antigens on the donor RBC  Antibodies are proteins specialized to recognize foreign substances and provide immunity against them

 Incompatible transfusions cause agglutination ◦ clumping of the foreign RBCs  RBCs burst open! (hemolysis)  releases hemoglobin into bloodstream  Hemoglobin can block kidney tubules  Can cause kidney failure and death

 Represented by multiple alleles  Two of these are co-dominant  The Rhesus factor is a protein that may exist on the surface of the cell – this results in a positive blood type

 The ABO Blood groups:  Type A (Both A antigens)  Type B (Both B antigens)  Type AB (Both A and B antigens)  Type O (neither antigen is present; recessive)  Rh (rhesus) factor ( + or - ):  Positive or negative for presence on the surface of the RBC  Pregnant women risk destruction of baby’s RBCs as the body attempts to reject a baby that doesn’t match mother’s rhesus factor

 Differences in Rh factor between baby and mother  Most of the time, the first baby is fine  Antibodies are built up after first baby  This makes the second pregnancy extremely high risk

 If the baby survives pregnancy:  the destruction of RBCs will result in:  Hemolytic disease of the newborn  Jaundice  Anemia  Enlarged liver/spleen  To counteract this problem: ◦ Incompatible mothers are given an immune serum called RhoGAM to prevent this immune response