[HN Gopher] Scientists find new blood group after 50-year mystery
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       Scientists find new blood group after 50-year mystery
        
       Author : tomrod
       Score  : 81 points
       Date   : 2024-09-17 21:47 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | gus_massa wrote:
       | A few years ago, I made a comment in a similar topic asking for
       | more details, and I got a very good reply. Hat tip to tait:
       | 
       | > _It 's complicated._
       | 
       | > _There are more than 35 red blood cell groups
       | (seehttps://www.science.org.au/curious/people-medicine/blood-
       | typ... for a nice writeup). For each of those blood groups, there
       | is more than one possible configuration of some protein or
       | carbohydrate (something like more than one possible genetic
       | sequence leading to more than one kind of molecule on the surface
       | of the RBCs)._
       | 
       | > _And, even with ABO, there can be infrequent variations that
       | make things more complicated (seehttps://professionaleducation.bl
       | ood.ca/en/transfusion/best-p... for more)._
       | 
       | > _For the other blood groups, I think every case the groups were
       | identified because a patient somewhere made an antibody, causing
       | either a transfusion reaction (if not tested ahead of time) or,
       | more likely, a positive (incompatible) reaction on in
       | compatibility testing._
       | 
       | > [...]
       | 
       | It's worth reading the full original comment because it has more
       | interesting details https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33507052
        
       | jmclnx wrote:
       | Kind of lacks details, at first thought I thought it was going to
       | be about this type:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hh_blood_group
       | 
       | Can O- be used for this new type ? I know group Hh the answer is
       | no.
        
       | pazimzadeh wrote:
       | Deletions in the MAL gene result in loss of Mal protein, defining
       | the rare inherited AnWj-negative blood group phenotype
       | 
       | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39158068/
        
       | water-data-dude wrote:
       | Does this article seem weirdly phrased in places to anyone else?
       | 
       | Like here:
       | 
       | > They identified the genetic background of the previously known
       | AnWj blood group antigen, which was discovered in 1972 but
       | unknown until now after this world-first test was developed.
       | 
       | That sentence feels ponderous and a bit ambiguous to me. How does
       | the genetic background of the AnWj blood group antigen relate?
       | And if it was known in 1972, what exactly did these researchers
       | discover about it? Am I missing background knowledge, or am I
       | just having a bad day for reading comprehension or something?
        
         | teamonkey wrote:
         | "Everyone has proteins outside their red blood cells known as
         | antigens, but a small number might lack them."
        
         | xelamonster wrote:
         | This bit seemed off too:
         | 
         | > The test [...] will make it easier to find potential blood
         | developers for this rare blood type.
         | 
         | Developers? Do they mean donors?
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-21 23:01 UTC)