Blood Group Substances

Blood Group Substances: Their Chemistry and Immunochemistry focuses on the characteristics, reactions, sources, and transformations of blood group substances. The book first offers information on human blood group factors and the methods and reagents used in testing for blood group antibodies and antigens. Topics include autoantibody formation and hemolytic anemia, panagglutinable erythrocytes, effects of temperature on hemagglutination, and effects of periodate on blood group substances. The text also ponders on the sources and purification of blood group substances. The publication examines the chemical and immunochemical characterization of blood group substances and immunochemical similarities and differences among blood group substances from various species. The text then takes a look at antibodies to blood group substances and their biological effects, including purification and concentration of blood group antibodies; studies with antibodies labeled with radioactive isotopes; and passage of antibodies through the placenta. The manuscript is a valuable reference for readers interested in blood group substances.

Although a few books covering primarily serological aspects of human blood groups are available, it became clear to me in the course of my research that no compendium of the non-serological aspects of human blood group systems exists. This book has been written to facilitate access to the vast number of publications scattered throughout the literature in both chemical and medical journals on the chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology of blood groups. It is designed as a concise survey for use by blood bankers and researchers in biochemistry, blood group serology, immunohaemotology, forensic medicine, population genetics, and anthropology; the text is supplemented by numerous illustrations and tables. This volume encompasses the entire field of blood group serology and provides a comprehensive survey of present knowledge in the field. The serological aspects have been kept to a minimum. I have emphasised the chemical, biochemical and molecular genetic basis of blood group specificity and given full consideration to molecular biology investigations, in particular to those on the structure of blood group genes and the structural basis of alleles and rare blood group variants. The book covers the latest developments in research and discusses literature up to the beginning of 1995.

An Introduction to Human Blood Groups provides an introduction to human blood groups. The book begins with a chapter on elementary serological matters. This is followed by separate chapters on the Rhesus factor, hemolytic disease of the newborn, Rhesus antibodies, the Rh complex, blood-group nomenclature and notation, and the MNS system. Subsequent chapters deal with the ABO system, the P and Lewis blood-group systems, the relationship of blood groups to disease, and human blood-group genetics. The final chapter considers whether blood groups can contribute to the study of mankind.