science

Give someone blood with antigens when they don’t have antigens and things go badly. Now they can test for non-antigen blood and ensure they give the correct blood and save their life.

Antigens are molecules that bind with antibodies - which is to say that they are things which trigger immune responses. In human blood, antigens are protein markers which are part of red blood cells.

Blood antigens are important because giving a patient blood which contains antigens that their antibodies react to will cause the immune system to attack the donor blood as if it were bacteria or another foreign invader. If you receive a liter of blood that your antibodies react to, your immune system will destroy the foreign blood (so you still need blood) and also your kidneys will start to fail because they're being overwhelmed with a liter of dead blood cells all at once.

Most people are familiar with A/B/O +/-, but the reality is far more complicated. Hundreds of different protein markers have been identified in human blood. Not all of them are clinically relevant in the sense that they can cause rejection, and not all of them have easy identification tests. The more precise and thorough the antigen testing can be, the less likely that a blood transfusion will accidentally kill a patient.

I'm not sure about this antigen in particular but from the ab0 group 0 (lack of a and b) protects to a certain degree from malaria.

Hey there. From one dumbass to another, i believe antigens help protect against mutation of the genetic code.

Most people are familiar with A, B, O, and Rh red cell antigens, as they are the most significant. Completely separate from this "blood group system" there are many other potentially antigenic molecules present on the red cell membrane.

No but in a sense yes. Im to lazy and on mobile to link but most of the time those with bombay blood have to donate their own blood