Self Learning Experiences

Self Learning Experiences 

--Contemporary Science issue

In this past year I had done quite a number of self-researches, and I will share one research on the different reaction of various blood types.

Every once in the while I come across some piece of news that talks about blood transfusion along with terms like "Universal donor" and "Universal recipients". I was very curious and did some self-research. Here's what I found out:

Different blood type reactions

Blood Type	A	B	AB	O
Antigens	A	B	A, B	NONE
Antibody	B	A	None	A, B

If you have the A antigen, you have type A blood. The liquid portion of your blood (plasma) has antibodies that fight against type B blood.

If you have the B antigen, you have type B blood. Your plasma has antibodies that fight against type A blood.

If you have neither the A nor B antigen, you have type O blood. Your plasma has antibodies that fight against both type A and type B blood. 

If you have both the A and B antigens, you have type AB blood. Your plasma does not have antibodies against type A or type B blood.

Antibodies fight against antigens, therefore, if somehow a person with type A blood receive type B blood, any of the four reactions below could happen.

Fluid overload - this common side effect can be lessened by slowly introducing the donated blood.

       Allergic reaction - the most common complication. The recipient’s immune system treats the donated blood

 products as a threat. Symptoms include itching, dizziness, headache and difficulties in breathing.

       Haemolytic reaction - occurs if the recipient is given the wrong type of blood. The transfused red blood 

cells are killed off. Symptoms include a feeling of pressure in the chest, back pain and difficulties in breathing. 

Haemolytic reaction can sometimes be life threatening.

      Graft versus host disease - where the donated white blood cell destroy the recipient’s cells. The

symptoms include low blood pressure and fever. It is also life threatening.

The term "Universal Donor" refers to people with the O negative blood, they can donate blood to a person with any blood type, since the O negative blood does not contain any antigens, thus causing no reactions when it is being transfused to another person. 

However, a person with the O negative blood can only receive blood from another person with the exact same blood type, thus making it tough for the person if he/she has any type of disease that requires blood transfusion, since only around 7% of the world population has the O negative blood type.

The term "Universal Recipients", on the other hand,  refers to people with the AB negative blood. Since they contain no antibodies, they will not react with any blood type. Therefore, they can receive blood from a person with any blood type. These people make up only 1% of the Earth's population, and is the rarest blood type that exists.

Conclusion: After doing some self-research, I finally understood what blood transfusion is all about. I also learnt about the various blood types and the reactions among these blood types. It came as a shock to me as I realized that if any process during the blood transfusion is not executed properly, a person could be in grave danger just because of the reactions of his/her blood type with other blood types.

I myself have a type B positive blood, which is quite common and is able to receive blood from a person with blood type B+ B- O+ O-.
Overall, I enjoyed doing self-researches as I find them great opportunities to learn about new things.