I hadn't really thought too much about blood types until I recently read about Rh-null. It was discovered in 1961 and is the world's rarest blood type,only 43 people on the planet have been determined to have it. Rh-null is kind of like the type O of rare blood types in the Rh system. Enough about that,I seem to have drifted off my intended subject,if you want to know more about Rh-null there is plenty of info out there. After reading about Rh-null I started to wonder why blood types were named A,AB,B and O. What happened to C and the other letters in between B and O? When blood was first recognized as having differences they were named A,B and C,but then they figured out that type A had A antigens on their surfaces,and B had B antigens,and the rare AB had both. The type they had called C up until then had a smooth surface so they changed it to O. The reason O was chosen for the name isn't 100% known but it is thought either because of the smooth surface of the blood cells,or because there were zer0 antigens.
No comments:
Post a Comment