Question

Type O- blood is often referred to as the universal donor. Why can a person with O- blood donate blood to any type of recipient without the risk of major agglutination in the recipient? Can the recipient of O- blood suffer from minor agglutination? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

(Answer1) Type O- is called the Universal donor:

1. The person has got no antigens on the surface of the RBC

2. Anti A and Anti B antibodies are present in the Plasma.

So basically when a person gives his Blood to any of the recipient, it contains both RBC and the Anti A and the Anti B antibodies.Usually they dont give the blood in huge volumes, they only use in the case of emergency where there is no option for the perfect donor. So Giving the blood in Small Volume Shows the following result

• The RBC stays alive as there is no antigen which is present on its cell membrane, so there is no interaction of the recipient antibodies with the Donors RBC
• The Anti A and the Anti B Antibodies are present in small amount so they get titrated and they barely show any impact on the Recipients RBC (So No Major Agglutination)

So the Donor cells stays safe and the recipient RBC do not get destroyed due to very small Volume of Anti A and the Anti B Antibodies from the Donors plasma

(But currently this practice is not followed and cross matching is done)

(Answer 2) Yes the Patient can suffer from minor agglutination, O- Person should always donate to a O- Person, but there maybe a few minor antigens which maybe present on the donor but not on the recipient RBS, Thus the Body starts producing Antibodies against the minor antigen which may cause minor agglutination in the Donor

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