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Blood transfusions have been around since the 1700s.
But for the first 200 years or so, they were pretty risky,
and more often than not, ended up killing
rather curing the patient.
That all changed in 1901 with the
discovery of blood groups--
an inherent, inherited characteristic of blood.
Nicole Thornton from the NHS Blood and Transplant is here
to tell me more, while I do my bit
donating my half an armful.
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So where does my blood group come from?
So your blood group is determined by the genes that
you inherit from your mother and father.
And when we're talking about the ABO blood group system,
there are four main blood types, which is what most
people call them.
We call them phenotypes.
And we have group A, group B, group O, and group AB.
The genetic basis of the ABO blood group system is the ABO
gene, which is located on chromosome 9.
And you will inherit a copy from both your mum, and one
from your dad.
And depending on the version of that gene that you inherit
from your parents, this will then determine what
your blood type is.
So what is a blood group?
Essentially, a blood group is determined by the antigens
that are present on our red cells, and the ability to be
able to detect those antigens.
And an antigen is basically a structure on your red cells,
and it can be a protein or a carbohydrate.
A group A person has A antigen on their cells.
A group B person has B antigen on their cells.
An AB person has both antigens, and a group O person
doesn't have any.
When somebody has the antigen, they don't have the antibody
to that antigen.
So if they are lacking the antigen, their body has
naturally-occurring antibodies that are against the antigen
that they lack.
So if you were to receive blood of the wrong type, your
body would attack the foreign antigen.
And so I'm group O. What does that mean?
So, because you're group O, that means that you're a very,
very useful donor because you don't have any A or B antigen
on your cells, which means your cells can go to anyone
else of any blood type.
So lots of people can have my blood.
And what about me?
What can I have if I needed a blood transfusion?
Unfortunately, it means that you can only receive group O,
because you have anti-A and anti-B in your plasma.
So if you were to receive any cells that had that antigen on
them, your body would attack them.
In the laboratory that I work in-- it's the International
Blood Group Reference Laboratory--
we investigate rare blood groups.
So not just the ABO system, because there are many other
blood group systems.
There's actually currently 34 blood group systems.
And that encompasses around about 300 antigens.
We're discovering new ones all the time.
And also, there are some antigens that aren't assigned
to a gene yet.
We call them the orphans.
And we're always researching and trying to find the genetic
background to some of these antigens.
So we investigate rare mutations that then give rise
to the lack of antigens that most people may have.
And once again, if you don't have the antigen, you can then
possibly make the antibody to that antigen.
It can make transfusion very difficult, or finding
compatible blood very difficult.
So, as you've heard, there are loads of different types of
blood groups.
Not just ABO, but many more besides.
That's why it's so important that we get as many people
donating as possible, from a wide variety of backgrounds.
I've done my bit.
I'm off to get my cup of tea.