What are the characteristics of a universal blood recipient

The so-called universal blood recipient actually refers to people with AB type blood. Since this blood type does not contain agglutinins, it is often used in some emergency situations. However, this situation will greatly reduce the safety factor. In life, there are many people with this blood type, so when this group of people needs blood transfusion, it is best to go to a regular hospital. So what are the characteristics of universal blood recipients?

First, what are the characteristics of universal blood recipients? Although there are corresponding antigens on AB type blood cells, since the transfusion is mainly blood cells with very little serum, the amount of transfused agglutinins is also very small, and the combination of agglutinins and antigens is also less, which is relatively safe. Therefore, type AB blood is called a universal blood recipient, but the amount of blood transfusion cannot be too large. It can only be used in emergency situations (such as on the battlefield) and has a low safety factor.

Second, there is no omnipotence, omnipotence is relative. ABO blood type is just one blood type system, there are many other blood type systems, such as RH blood type system, etc. ABO matches, but RH does not necessarily match. So far, more than a dozen blood type systems have been discovered. It's just that some blood types are uncommon and not very antigenic. O-type blood can be transfused to AB type, or A, B type, but only O-type red blood cells, not plasma. Since it is impossible to completely separate plasma when donating blood, O-type blood cannot be transfused to people of other types (the concentrated red blood cells in the blood bank have more or less plasma components), but if there is really no other way, O-type blood can be washed with saline (to remove plasma), and the washed O-type RBC can be transfused to the patient (AB, A, etc. ABO is just a preliminary typing, and there are branches below, such as A1, A2, etc. They are also factors that cause hemolysis.

What are the characteristics of a universal blood recipient? Blood can sometimes be transfused even if the antigens (blood types) are different, but it must be matched (some blood type systems have very weak immunity, and some blood type systems have no innate antibodies). From a genetic or other perspective, everyone's RBC and plasma components are different. Transfusing someone else's blood will definitely cause an immune response, but the reaction is relatively weak and will not cause clinical symptoms. It is best to transfuse blood by autologous blood or component blood. But in any case, people with AB blood type have a higher survival rate than those with other blood types.