Scientists Have Discovered a New Set of Blood Groups:
The unborn baby was in trouble. Its mother's doctors, at a UK hospital, knew there was something wrong with the fetus's blood, so they decided to perform an emergency C-section many weeks before the baby was due. But despite this, and subsequent blood transfusions, the baby suffered a brain hemorrhage with devastating consequences. It sadly passed away.
It wasn't clear why the bleeding had happened. But there was a clue in the mother's blood, where doctors had noticed some strange antibodies. Some time later, as the medics tried to find out more about them, a sample of the mother's blood arrived at a lab in Bristol run by researchers who study blood groups.
They made a startling discovery: The woman's blood was of an ultrarare type, which may have made her baby's blood incompatible with her own. It's possible that this prompted her immune system to produce antibodies against her baby's blood—antibodies that then crossed the placenta and harmed her child, ultimately leading to its loss. It may seem implausible that such a thing could happen, but many decades ago, before doctors had a better understanding of blood groups, it was much more common.
Through studying the mother's blood sample, along with a number of others, scientists were able to unpick exactly what made her blood different, and in the process confirmed a new set of blood grouping—the "Er" system, the 44th to be described.
You're probably familiar with the four main blood types—A, B, O, and AB. But this isn't the only blood classification system. There are many ways of grouping red blood cells based on differences in the sugars or proteins that coat their surface, known as antigens. The grouping systems run concurrently, so your blood can be classified in each—it might, for instance, be type O in the ABO system, positive (rather than negative) under the Rhesus system, and so on.
Thanks to differences in antigens, if someone receives incompatible blood from a donor, for example, the recipient's immune system may detect those antigens as foreign and react against them. This can be highly dangerous, and is why donated blood needs to be a suitable match if someone is having a transfusion.
On average, one new blood classification system has been described by researchers each year during the past decade. These newer systems tend to involve blood types that are mind-bogglingly rare but, for those touched by them, just knowing that they have such blood could be lifesaving. This is the story of how scientists unraveled the mystery of the latest blood system—and why it matters.
[...] It will also be possible to look out for and identify patients who have this troublesome blood. For example, someone might go to a hospital for a transfusion and have a preliminary blood test that reveals the presence of some unusual antibodies. Doctors could send the blood for analysis, and it might turn out that they have the rare Er blood described in the paper. "We have our testing set up to be able to do that," says Thornton. Rare blood might then be required for that person's transfusion, she adds. In the future, scientists in a lab might be able to grow red blood cells that could be offered to these patients for transfusion purposes.
It's very, very unlikely that you'd have an incompatibility with someone else's blood due to Er antigens, says Avent. But "if you do, it's something you want to know about."
[Editor's Comment: Edited at 20221005 14:18 to remove spurious text. JR]
Journal Reference:
Vanja Karamatic Crew, Louise A. Tilley, Timothy J. Satchwell, et al. Missense mutations in PIEZO1, encoding the Piezo1 mechanosensor protein, define the Er red blood cell antigens, Blood (DOI: 10.1182/blood.2022016504)
(Score: 4, Funny) by EJ on Wednesday October 05 2022, @01:06PM (3 children)
in theTimothy J future. Will blood types still matTimothy J ter?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday October 05 2022, @02:17PM (2 children)
Thanks - don't know when or how that appeared!
(Score: 2) by EJ on Wednesday October 05 2022, @02:28PM
Gremlins.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday October 05 2022, @08:58PM
If you fixed it (as your Editor's Comnent implies), it appears to have reappeared!
(Score: 2, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday October 05 2022, @04:00PM (6 children)
There's cis-A, trans-B, bi-AB, queer-B, intersex-O, and identifies-as-attack-helicopter-A.
Can't remember what the other 35-odd are, maybe someone else can fill in the blanks.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 05 2022, @07:03PM
New ones are mutating into existence right now. It's quite a chore to keep up with naming them and figuring out how to not categorize them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Thursday October 06 2022, @01:26AM (4 children)
Sigh, why did I know that a Touche-style response was going to be modded Troll? What I was pointing out was that these aren't new blood groups, these are one-off mutations that have been happening forever, thus the "ultra-rare" and "one each year during the past decade", which is only because they've only been able to detect them in recent years. It's not an entirely new blood group, it's a variant of an existing one, and there will continue to be new variants pop up, with even more frequency in the future as our ability to detect variants gets better.
(Score: 1, Troll) by http on Thursday October 06 2022, @04:52PM (1 child)
Because it added exactly zero information, posited no interesting theories, and offered zero insight. It doues, however, attempt to inflame emotional responses using a shit boring meme originally intended to make its victims feel ostracized and suicidal.
So add a hearty fuck you to you, too.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 08 2022, @08:39PM
In this case the reader (you) is the one lacking insight.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 08 2022, @08:36PM (1 child)
I'm constantly surprised by the lack of sense of humor here, green, and other sites. Also disappointed that people are so quick to interpret things as negative and have a little hissy-fit. I guess the "troll" mod makes them feel important and powerful. Sad, just sad.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday October 09 2022, @05:10AM
Ran into this in another forum recently, someone posted a political cartoon from somewhere that lampooned a currently-running scandal and someone else decided it was racist and spent a considerable amount of effort trying to convince everyone else to see the racism. Problem is no-one could, including members of the race that the cartoon was supposed to be offensive to.
Congratulations, here's your virtue-signalling badge, now could you let is keep sharing political cartoons? Some of them are actually quite good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 05 2022, @04:16PM (1 child)
(Score: 4, Funny) by bart9h on Wednesday October 05 2022, @05:00PM
My Girlfriend's Girlfriend is Type-O-Negative
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 05 2022, @06:18PM (13 children)
There would be very few people left with that deadly blood type, but they wouldn't be completely extinct. All sorts of strange genetic things happen in pregnancy.
An example of how weird genetics can get is a pair of learning-disabled newlyweds I knew (it looked to me that they were both victims of fetal alcohol syndrome) who were thrilled to be expecting their first child.
The doctor wanted to abort the pregnancy, attempting to explain the fetus' problems, but they wanted their baby.
It was born with its heart outside its chest and lived for twenty torturous minutes. Those "pro-life" people, most of whom are hypocrites who support the death penalty and supported the Afghanistan war, need to wake the fuck up to the horror they are unleashing on American lives. They would have that poor couple's choice be taken away from every expecting couple. Fetus' heart outside its chest? Tough shit, lady, you're delivering that baby. Ectopic pregnancy? "Sorry, lady, you're gonna die. It's the law."
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday October 05 2022, @08:52PM (3 children)
The so called "pro life" people are okay as long as there is No Bloody Way that someone with the deadly Er blood type can escape carrying their baby to term, even if it dies.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2, Troll) by mcgrew on Thursday October 06 2022, @04:01PM (1 child)
The "pro life" hypocrites (most of them are in favor of war and the death penalty) would have a woman take an ectopic pregnancy to term, killing both the baby and mother. Today's "Republican" party is really a Fascist party, unlike the previous century, 100% authoritarian and run by business, the very definition of Fascism.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Troll) by http on Thursday October 06 2022, @04:56PM
They're really quite OK with a fraction of women dying in pregnancy as long as the idea that women are only worth their soldier-generating capacity persists. The war machine is not unlinked to the pregnancy mandate.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Sunday October 09 2022, @05:13AM
The thing is, it's a misnomer. They're pro-birth, not pro-life. Once she's been forced to have the baby, it's someone else's problem.
If they really were pro-life they'd be pushing for free healthcare, universal good-quality free education, better care and standards of living for economically disadvantage people... you know, all the stuff that's actually pro-life, not just pro-birth.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday October 05 2022, @08:54PM (3 children)
The parents' choice makes sense if you consider that there's a survival rate of around 10% for that defect if the fetus survives to term, as at that point surgeons can operate to either place the heart within the chest cavity, or protect it while they make whatever alterations are needed to do so. The odds obviously aren't great, but medical science can't discover new ways to treat rare defects & injuries if nobody is willing to at least make the attempt.
Also, in the cases where parents choose to go to term with a terminally disabled fetus who can't be saved, everything possible is done to prevent the infant from suffering. As a pro-choice woman, I see nothing wrong with parents choosing to continue a doomed pregnancy under those circumstances if it brings them some comfort.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday October 06 2022, @12:47AM
The problem comes in when the parents aren't given a choice, even more if it endangers the mother.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday October 06 2022, @01:49AM
That's 90% being born stillborn followed by 10% surviving the first 12hours with actual neonatal survival being a further fraction off of that: https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(19)31150-3/fulltext [jpeds.com]
And that's not saying anything about the lifelong physical and cognitive disabilities that follow up something this severe...
Makes no sense to me.
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(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday October 06 2022, @03:57PM
They sure didn't seem comforted to me. As this was only about ten years ago, it's pretty certain that the doctors would have performed surgery if the baby had a ghost of a chance. But I agree, it was their choice. The "Republicans" (it ain't your grandpa's Republican party) would take that choice away.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 05 2022, @09:44PM (4 children)
The way to prevent the suffering of the baby was to dismember the baby in the womb in an abortion? It sounds to me like that life was doomed to end in horror either way.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2022, @12:16AM (1 child)
If there's no way to avoid the suffering and death, there's no functional difference in the results of ending the pregnancy at 9 weeks instead of 9 months. Dead is dead.
There are debatable issues surrounding abortion, but this isn't one of them.
(Score: 2) by http on Thursday October 06 2022, @04:57PM
Going to jail because you had an abortion probably makes a functional difference in your life.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Thursday October 06 2022, @12:49AM
It's better to end it when there isn't enough brain and nervous system to support suffering.
(Score: 3, Touché) by mcgrew on Thursday October 06 2022, @03:50PM
Yes, the fetus, then the baby, were doomed. Would you rather die quickly before your central nervous system isn't fully functional, maybe even before the brain is a brain, or a slow, agonizing death outside the womb?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 05 2022, @09:51PM (1 child)
I wonder if the different blood groups are artifacts of our mixed human parentage from Neanderthals and Denisovans. A while back there was something about how people on the Tibetan plateau inherited their tolerance to high altitudes from Denisovans [answersingenesis.org].
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday October 06 2022, @02:21AM
Not significantly so:
( https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254175 [plos.org] )
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