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In 1900, Landsteiner discovered that the serum of
some individuals would agglutinate the red blood cells of others and
that this phenomenon could be used to classify individuals into
different blood group phenotypes. Four common phenotypes are
recognised – O, A, B and AB. Subgroups of the A and B antigens have
been identified.
The ABO phenotype for an individual is usually
determined by the agglutination reactions of that individual's red
cells with Anti–A, Anti–B and Anti–A,B antiserum (forward grouping).
In testing blood samples from adults, confirmation of the ABO blood
group can be provided by the reactions of the individual’s serum
with standard A and B red blood cell suspensions (reverse grouping). |
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