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The discovery of ABO blood groups earned Karl Landsteiner The Nobel Prize in 1930.

The history of ABO blood type discoveries is intertwined with the history of blood transfusion

The practice of blood transfusion has a long history

Although the safe blood transfusions we are accustomed to today only became widespread practice during and shortly after the Second World War, blood transfusions have a much longer history. Throughout history, people recognized that loss of blood was frequently associated with illness and death. Hence, early attempts at replacing lost blood involved various approaches, including even the drinking of blood by the patient. The first person to conceive of blood transfusions as they are practiced today, is thought to have been Francis Potter, vicar of Kilmarton in Somerset, England. Potter is thought to have originated the idea of transfusion as early as 1639, and devised quills (as ‘needles’) and tubes for the purpose.

Human blood transfusion first documented in France

Using human blood to treat disease and trauma is thought to have begun in France in 1667. Jean-Baptiste Denys, court physician to King Louis XIV, had been experimenting on transfusing lambs’ blood into human subjects and described what is probably the first recorded account of the signs and symptoms of blood group incompatibility. The early direct donor-to-patient transfusions that followed were often with such disastrous consequences because it was not possible to predict donor-recipient blood type compatibility.

Disastrous transfusion experiments caused them to be banned

Through such early experiments, the practice of transfusion acquired many enemies among the physicians of Paris. Eventually, in 1678, an edict from the French parliament ruled transfusion to be criminal act if performed in France. This had repercussions in England where the medical society also rapidly disregarded transfusions. Finally, in 1679 the Pope announced a ban on the procedure. As a result, the practice of transfusion fell into general disrepute for more than a century and a half.
(The above are excerpts from a Short History of Blood Transfusion by Phil Learoyd).

The discovery of the ABO blood types earned The Nobel Prize in 1930

It wasn´t until the year 1900, when Karl Landsteiner at the University of Vienna discovered why some blood transfusions were successful while others could be deadly. Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood group system by mixing the red cells and serum of each of his staff. He demonstrated that the serum of some people agglutinated the red cells of other. From these early experiments he identified three types, called A, B and C (C was later to be re-named O for the German “Ohne”, meaning “without”). The fourth much rarer blood group AB, was discovered a year later. In 1930, Landsteiner received The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work.

ABO blood typing has made blood transfusions safer

Discovery of the ABO blood types has not only made the medical practice of blood transfusion a great deal safer, it has also allowed scientists to study one of the first human characteristics proven to be inherited. Since Landsteiner´s discoveries, science has demonstrated that a person´s ABO blood type depends on which kind of glycoproteins, or antigens, are found on the surface of red blood cells. As these antigens are entirely genetically determined, then so is a person´s ABO blood type.

Your ABO blood type is determined by a gene on chromosome nine

The gene that determines a person´s ABO blood type is found on chromosome 9 and is called ABO glycosyltransferase. In the simplest terms, this gene may be said to come in three different forms, that is, it has three different alleles. These alleles are also named A, B and O, because each is responsible for the production of its namesake glycoprotein (antigen). It is therefore the combination of alleles that you inherited from your parents that determines which glycoproteins (antigens) are found on your blood cells and thereby your ABO blood type.

deCODEme can predict your genetically determined ABO blood type

The deCODEme Complete Scan identifies which combination of the three ABO alleles you carry on chromosome 9 and therefore which blood type you are likely to have. At the present time, sufficient predictive data is only available for customers of European ancestry.

More information

For more information on the history of ABO blood type discoveries and blood transfusions, visit:

• The history of blood transfusion medicine
• The history of ABO blood types

This content was last reviewed on February 09, 2010.

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