How come People have differnet blood types?

Question from room 2

A very good question and we appoligize for the delay in getting the answer to you. For our research, we consulted with the Compton's Encyclopedia. Here is some information about the person that identified the diferent types of human blood.

"LANDSTEINER, Karl (1868-1943). The Austrian immunologist and pathologist who discovered the major blood groups was Karl Landsteiner. Based upon these groups, he developed the ABO system of blood typing that has made blood transfusion a routine medical practice.

Landsteiner was professor of pathology at the University of Vienna from 1909 to 1919. At the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City from 1922, he discovered the Rhesus (Rh) blood factor. It is the basis of a series of events that can occur in the blood of a pregnant woman and her unborn child and result in a disease causing a miscarriage or a dangerous illness in the newborn.

Landsteiner's book 'The Specificity of Serological Reactions', published in 1936, is a classic text that helped to establish the science of immunochemistry. Landsteiner died in New York City on June 26, 1943.

Blood groups. One person's blood might not be exactly like another's because of certain inherited differences in the blood. On the basis of these differences, blood can be classified into many blood groups, or blood types. The best known of the blood groups are defined in relation to the red cells, though white cells, platelets, and plasma substances can also be grouped for similarities and differences. These red-cell groups are known by such names as the Rh type, Kell group, Duffy group, and Diego group, among others. The most important, however, is the ABO blood group. A person has either blood group A, B, AB, or O. Before anyone can receive a transfusion, that person's red cells must be typed, or grouped, to see if any immunity exists against the donor's blood. Great care must be taken to make sure that the donor's red cells are compatible, or mixable, with the blood of the patient. If there is no immunity, then the two bloods are compatible.

Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Copyright (C) 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.

Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Copyright (C) 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.

ˆHow come People have differnet blood types?

Question from room 2, Julie Breeze