Blood is essential to life. It circulates through our body and delivers essential substances like oxygen and nutrients to the body’s cells. It also transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. There is a blood group system- ABO which is the major bifurcation of blood type
Components:
There are major 4 components of Blood- Red blood cells, Plasma, White blood cells and Platelets.
Major breakthroughs in Blood History
In 1628 English physician William Harvey discovered the circulation of blood. Shortly afterward, the earliest known blood transfusion was attempted.
ABO blood group system
A, B ,O and AB consist of ABO blood group system-discovered by Karl Landsteiner. He is known as Father of blood grouping and immunochemistry.
Roger Lee defined the terms ‘Universal donor’ and ‘Universal recipient’. He demonstrated that group O blood could be transfused in patients having anyone of the four blood groups, while group AB patients could receive blood having anyone of the four blood groups.
Who can receive what?
The “type” actually refers to the presence of a particular type of antigen sticking up from the surface of a red blood cell. An antigen is anything that elicits a response from an immune cell called an antibody. Antibodies latch onto foreign substances that enter the body, such as bacteria and viruses, and clump them together for removal by other parts of the immune system. The human body naturally makes antibodies that will attack certain types of red-blood-cell antigens.
For example, people with type A blood have A antigens on their red blood cells and make antibodies that attack B antigens; people with type B blood have B antigens on their red blood cells and make antibodies that attack A antigens. So, type A people can’t donate their blood to type B people and vice versa. People who are type AB have both A and B antigens on their red blood cells and therefore don’t make any A or B antibodies while people who are type O have no A or B antigens and make both A and B antibodies.
The Rh factor is another well known blood group, referring to the “positive” or “negative” in blood types, such as A-positive or B-negative. (The Rh refers to Rhesus macaques, which were used in early studies of the blood group.) People who are Rh-positive have Rh antigens on their red blood cells; people who are Rh-negative don’t and produce antibodies that will attack Rh antigens. The Rh blood group plays a role in the sometimes fatal blood disease erythroblastosis fetalis that can develop in newborns if an Rh-negative women gives birth to an Rh-positive baby and her antibodies attack her child.
Blood Banks:
A place where blood is collected and stored before it is used for transfusions. Blood banking takes place in the lab. This is to make sure that donated blood and blood products are safe before they are used. Blood banking also determines the blood type.
Blood Bank Management System is a browser based solution that is designed to store, process, retrieve and analyze information concerned with the administrative, inventory management and clinical aspects of providing services within a blood bank.
To summarize
It’s popularly said the name Bloods is an acronym for “Brotherly Love Overcomes Overrides and Destruction.” However, the Bloods, given their origins as a counter-Crip alliance, likely take their name from 1960s slang, blood, short for blood brother, referring to a “fellow (young) black person.”
Remember- There is no substitute for blood in this world. It cannot be made or manufactured. Generous blood donors are the only source of blood for patients in need of a blood transfusion.
Source: Wikipedia