Blood Types

If a person loses a lot of blood from a wound or during surgery—he or she may be given a blood transfusion. A blood transfusion is the transference of blood from one person to another. Most early attempts at blood transfusion failed, but no one knew why until the early 1900’s. At that time Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian American physician, tried mixing blood samples from pairs of people. Sometimes the two blood samples blended smoothly. In other cases, however, the red blood cells clumped together. This clumping accounted for the failure of many blood transfusions. If clumping occurs within the body, it clogs the capillaries and may kill the person.

Landsteiner went on to discover that there are four types of blood—A, B, AB, and O (there are other blood groups that were discovered later like Rh negative and positive). Blood types are determined by marker molecules on red blood cells. If your blood type is A, you have the A marker. If your blood type is B, you have the B marker. People with type AB blood have both A and B markers. The red blood cells of people with type O blood contain neither A nor B markers.

Your plasma contains clumping proteins that recognize red blood cells with “foreign” markers and make those cells clump together. For example, if you have blood type A, your blood contains clumping proteins that act against cells with B markers. So if you receive a transfusion of type B blood, your clumping proteins will make the “foreign” type B cells clump together.

Mission

In this activity you will:

a. determine what blood type can be donated to what blood

b. determine what blood type can accept what blood types

c. determine what blood type contains what clumping proteins.

Procedure

1. Place 2 drops of O blood from the micro centrifuge tubes labeled recipient, into each of the wells in the well plate. Record the marker protein and the clumping protein for the blood type.

2. Place 2 drops of the O blood from the donor tubes into well plate number 1. Record if a color change occurred into the data table.

3. Repeat step 2, this time with donor blood type A.

4. Repeat step 2, this time with donor blood type B.

5. Repeat step 2, this time with donor type AB.

6. Wash out the well plates with water and dry.

7. Repeat step 1, this time with recipient blood type A.

8. Repeat steps 2-6.

9. Repeat steps 1, this time with recipient blood type B.

10. Repeat step 2-6.

11. Repeat step 1, this time with recipient blood type AB.

12. Repeat steps 2-6.

Data

recipient / marker protein / clumping protein(s) / color change when blood type O from donor was added (yes or no) / color change when blood type A from donor was added (yes or no) / color change when blood type B from donor was added (yes or no) / color change when blood type AB from donor was added (yes or no)
O
A / A
B / A
AB

Data Analysis

When you mixed blood of different blood types no color changed indicated there were no clumping, If there was a color change, clumping occurred. Remember for clumping to occur there must be clumping proteins. Fill in the “clumping protein(s)” column in the previous table.

Fill in the chart below based on your data from the procedure. Remember if the blood clumped when blood types mixed they aren’t compatible.

blood type / can donate to / can receive blood from
A
B
AB
O

Questions: answer the questions below in complete sentence.
1. Explain why blood type AB is called the “universal recipient”.
2. Explain why blood type O is called the “universal donor”.