A blood type (also called a blood group) is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs).
An antigen is a protein expressed by a bacteria or virus that is recognized by the immune system as foreign which can stimulate the production of antibodies and combine specifically with them.
Blood types are inherited and represent contributions from both parents. The two most important ones are ABO and the RhD antigen ; they determine someone’s blood type (A, B, AB and O, with +, − or Null denoting RhD status).
Your blood group/blood type can change
Almost always, an individual has the same blood group for life, but very rarely an individual’s blood type changes through addition or suppression of an antigen in infection , malignancy, or autoimmune disease .
Another more common cause in blood type change is a bone marrow transplant. Bone-marrow transplants are performed for many leukemias and lymphomas , among other diseases. If a person receives bone marrow from someone who is a different ABO type (e.g., a type A patient receives a type O bone marrow), the patient’s blood type will eventually convert to the donor’s type.
ABO
The ABO system is the most important blood-group system in human-blood transfusion.
Type ‘A’ : Red blood cells have the A-antigen, which generates the Anti-B antibodies, that are present in plasma
Type ‘B’ : Red blood cells have the B-antigen and generate Anti-A antibodies, that are present in the plasma
Type ‘AB’ : Red Blood cells have both, A-antigen and B-antigen but generate neither Anti-A nor Anti-B antibodies, which are consequently absent in the plasma
Type ‘O’ : Red Blood cells have neither A-antigen, nor B-antigen, but Anti-A and Anti-B antibodies are present in the plasma
RED BLOOD CELL COMPATIBILITY TABLE
Table Note: Assumes absence of atypical antibodies that would cause an incompatibility between donor and recipient blood, as is usual for blood selected by cross matching
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