Blood transfusions in humans were risky procedures until the discovery of the major human blood groups by Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian biologist and physician, in 1900. Until that point, physicians did not understand that death sometimes followed blood transfusions, when the type of donor blood infused into the patient was incompatible with the patient’s own blood. Blood groups are determined by the presence or absence of specific marker molecules on the plasma membranes of erythrocytes. With their discovery, it became possible for the first time to match patient-donor blood types and prevent transfusion reactions and deaths.

What is your blood type?

If someone asks what your blood type is, you’re answer will most likely depend on the ABO/Rh system. The ABO/Rh system is the most well known of the many blood group systems and classifies blood into four possible blood types, A, B, AB and O based on antigens present on the surface of the red blood cells. The RhD group of the complex rhesus system classifies blood as either positive (RhD pos) or negative (RhD neg). The ABO system is the only blood group that has naturally occurring antibodies against the antigens not present on your red cells. So, if you are type A then you have antibodies against B antigens. This can cause severe issues when people need to receive blood as incompatible antibodies and antigens react. In fact, the intensity of the reaction is so strong that with a drop of blood you can see clumps, or agglutinates, form with your own eyes.

HISTORY CONNECTION

Using antibodies for the treatment and detection of disease has been used for a long time. Serum therapy was pioneered by Emil von Behring and Shibasabura Kitasato in the 1890, which was based on using antibodies from convalescent (recovered) patients to help to cure disease in the acutely sick people. Emil van Behring became the first ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 “for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths.”

 

Photos on the right are from our study abroad trip to Marburg, Germany and visit to the Behring museum.

 

Video Tutorials

How to do ELDON Blood Typing Test

Procedure: Blood-Typing Kit

1. Using a sharpie clearly write your name on the Eldon card provided.
2. Using a transfer pipette place a small drop of water in each colored circle. DO NOT TOUCH these colored reagents.
3. Wash your hands with warm water and make sure that they are thoroughly dried.
4. Take the lancet and twist the colored tip. Be careful not to activate the lancet; it can only be used once.
5. Pull off the tip of the safety lancet.
6. Disinfect the place where you will do the prick with using the provided alcohol wipe and allow it to air dry.
7. Rub your hands together for 5 minutes. (This will assist with blood flow and soften the skin to make penetrating the skin easier in the following step.)
8. After the 5 minute mark, place hand flat on table with palm facing upwards and prick either your middle or ring finger.
9. Place the lancing with the opening facing your finger and push down until you hear a “click”
10. Remove the lancet from your finger
11. Keep arm down on a table and gently press the blood towards the finger.
12. Continue pressing until a drop of blood with a 3-4mm diameter is seen.
13. Apply the blood to an Eldon stick (you were given 4 in your blood typing kit)
14. Approach from underneath the finger so that you do not smear over the skin
15. Place the stick with blood onto the first circular field. Allow it to touch the water already present.
16. Repeat steps 8-9 three times using the remaining Eldon sticks. Make sure to keep each stick inside its own field separate from the other sticks.
17. Stir the blood into the first field with the Eldon stick for 10 seconds to dissolve the reagents. Try to cover the entire field of the circle but do not cover beyond each circle.
18. Repeat step 10 in the remaining fields using their own sticks. In order to prevent the blood from clotting begin stirring within 2 minutes of applying blood to the first Eldon stick after initially pricking the finger.
19. The contact between the red blood cells and reagents may cause the cells to agglutinate into a grainy structure. Tilt the card for at least 40 seconds to develop all possible agglutinates. Tilt the card upright for 10 seconds, to the right vertical position for 10 seconds, and twice for the other edges for 10 seconds each.
20. Determine your blood type and Rhesus factor
21. Optional: Leave the card to dry on a flat surface. When the blood is completely dry use a piece of ELDONFOIL 2511 to encapsulate the blood and preserve the result.

Results