Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
type O blood
References
Videos
How gut enzymes could transform blood types
Britannica AI Icon

type O blood

biology
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

How gut enzymes could transform blood types
How gut enzymes could transform blood types Researchers develop ways to produce universal donor blood from other blood types.

Type O blood is a classification within the ABO blood group system. Individuals with type O blood have neither the A nor the B antigen on their red blood cells. However, their serum contains antibodies against both A and B antigens.1

This characteristic makes type O blood the universal red blood cell donor, meaning it can be transfused into recipients of any ABO blood type (A, B, AB, or O) without causing the red blood cells to clump together (agglutinate). Conversely, individuals with type O blood can only receive transfusions of type O red blood cells because their serum contains antibodies that would attack type A or type B red blood cells. Type O is the most common blood type globally.234

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
4 Britannica Sources
  1. ABO blood group system
  2. agglutinin
  3. therapeutics - Blood and blood cells
  4. type O

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.