Blood Type Testing Lab

Kamolporn Ittisurasing (Mind)

Panassaya Waenkaew (Pin)
11-3
17 March, 2015
Introduction:
Long time ago Gregor Mendel studied the trait in his peas plant thats showed only
complete dominance and had only two alleles, until he discovered that there were some traits can
have more than two alleles that code for their phenotypes. This allowed many more phenotypes
to be visible for any given trait and this is the beginning of how the blood type testing work.
Blood type were discovered by Karl Landsteiner, he trying to learn why blood transfusions
sometimes cause death and at other times save a patient by following Mendel's Laws of
Inheritance. [1]
Blood is a specialized body fluid. It has four main components; plasma, red blood cells,
white blood cells, and platelets. Blood has many different functions, such as transporting oxygen
and nutrients to the lungs and tissues, and carrying cells and antibodies that fight infection. [2] In
human body there are 4 possible phenotypic of blood: A B O and AB because of the specific
combination of these four components and individual differences determine the different type of
blood in most cases, its also depends on the types that are been passed down to you from your
parents. Blood types based on absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red
blood cells, these antigenic come form many substances such as proteins, carbohydrates,
glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system. [3]
ABO blood type is the most important blood type system in human blood transfusion its
classification of human blood based on the inherited properties of red blood cells. ABO blood
type are one of the example of multiple alleles of the single genes with the multiple alleles there
are more than two phenotypes depends on the dominant and recessive alleles in trait. Type A
blood will have antigens on their surface against antibodies type B blood. If the person with type
A blood (antigen) got injected by the type B blood (antibodies) the red cells in the injection will
be destroyed by anti-A antibodies in type B blood. Type O blood can be injected into persons
with type A, B, or O blood unless there is incompatibility with respect to some other blood group
system also present. Persons with type AB blood can receive type A, B, or O blood, as shown in
the table.[6]
An antigens is any substance that causes the immune system to produce antibodies and
antibodies is a large Y-shape protein produced by plasma cells that is used by the immune system
to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as bacteria and viruses. The interaction between
antigens and antibodies happen during immune system. The association between antigens and
antibodies indicated diverse non- covalent when the antigens enter to the immune system its will
produces antibodies to destroyed or deactivated because the fundamental reaction in the body
protected from the complex foreign molecule such as pathogen and because of antigens with

high affinity makes antibodies form an antigen-antibody complex then the complex immune
system transported to cellular system where it can be destroyed.[4]
The purpose of this experiment is to test our own blood type, to understand more about
human blood type (ABO) and to learn how to test blood type by mixed the blood with antibodies
against type A and B, after mixed the blood and antibodies together then checked to see if the
blood cell is coagulated or not. If the blood cell coagulated, it means the blood cell is reacted
with one of the antibodies. Person with type A blood will have anti B antibodies, person with
type B blood will have anti A antibodies and type O person will contain both anti A and B
antibodies. [5]
Materials:
-

2 Microscope Slides
Anti-A, -B, -AB
Markers
Lancets
Lancet Device
Ethanol
Cotton Ball
3 toothpicks

Method:
1. Draw two circles side-by-side (Diameter = 1cm) on each Microscope slides.
2. Mark each circle as control (C), anti-A (A), anti-B (B), anti-AB (AB).
3. Wait qualified person to puncture the tip of finger.
4. Drop a single drop of blood in each circle.
5. DONT put any antibody in control.
6. Marked in each circle as
a) Anti-A : drop a single drop of anti-A
b) Anti-B : drop a single drop of anti-B
c) Anti-AB : drop a single drop of anti-AB
7. Mix the blood and antibody well by using the toothpick.
8. Wait 10 seconds and observe the result.
9. Put the result in the table.
Results:
Table 1: the reaction of Minds blood when added antibody (A,B,O).
State: Coagulation / No coagulation
Control

Anti-A

No coagulation

Anti-B

No coagulation

Anti-AB

No coagulation

Discussion:
1. State the blood type your mother and father and explain the different scenarios of
allele inheritance that led to your type.
- Minds scenario
Blood type : O (ii)
Mother blood type : A (IA i)
Father blood type : O (ii)
1) IAi

ii

punnett square #1
IA

IAi

ii

IAi

ii

The result is 50% IAi : 50% ii or blood type will be 50% A, and 50% O.
- The blood type genotype of Minds mother is IA i , and Minds father is ii, when crossed
in punnett square, the chance of blood type will be 50% IAi : 50% ii, which means blood type
will be 50% A, and 50% O according to the punnett square #1 (shown above). Therefore, this
scenario is true because Minds blood type is O (ii).
- Pins scenarios
Blood type : A (IA ?)
Mother blood type : A (IA ?)
1) IAIA

Father blood type : O (ii)

ii

punnett square #2
IA

IA

IAi

IAi

IAi

IAi

The result is 100% IAi or blood type will be 100% A

2) IAi

ii
#3
IA

IAi

ii

IAi

ii

The result is 50% IAi : 50% ii or blood type will be 50% A, and 50% O.
- There are two scenarios for Pins allele inheritance which are shown above. The first
one is when her mother blood type genotype is IAIA and her father is ii, when we crossed the
genotype in punnett square #2, the chance of blood type will be 100% IAi or blood type will be
100% A. The second scenario is if her mother has blood type genotype IAi and her father has ii,
after crossed in punnett square #3, the possibility of blood type will be 50% IAi : 50% ii, which
means blood type will be 50% A, and 50% O. Hence, one of this two scenarios is true.

2. Explain why blood coagulates with some antibodies but not with other antibodies.
- In every blood type has their own specific antigen on their red blood cells,
which will produce antibodies to anti blood type that is not belong to them in their
plasma. There are two antigens (antigen A and antigen B) and two antibodies (antibody
anti-A and antibody anti-B) that are mostly responsible for the ABO types. [7] For
example, people with type A blood will have the A antigen which will not be produced
anti-A antibodies to destruct their own blood. Instead, if B type blood is injected to their
body, anti-B antibodies in their plasma will against it by agglutinate the introduced red
cells in order to cleanse the B type blood. In our experiment, we test with O type blood
that do not produce ABO antigens. Therefore, O type blood normally will not be rejected
when it is given to others with different ABO types or we can called them as universal
donors for transfusions. However, they can receive only type O blood themselves.

Conclusion:
In this experiment, we learned how to use the equipments in lab, understand more about
human ABO blood type and blood type testing method. Moreover, we had investigated Minds
blood type by adding antibodies A, B and AB into her blood. After we mixed every samples of
blood with antibodies and observed the changes of blood coagulation, we found that there are no
change in any samples. This results means that Minds blood type is O, because people with O
type blood do not have any antigen that will react with antibodies and cause the coagulation.
There is an error in this experiment, at the beginning we thought that Minds blood type
was A type, so we expected to see the coagulation on the anti-B and anti-AB after we mixed with
the antibodies with her blood. But when we finished mixed her blood with antibodies and
observed, we got the unexpected results which is nothing happening in neither anti-B nor antiAB antibodies. We will improve this experiment by rechecked Minds blood type to see that her
blood type is O as the result shown or not. If not this experiment will be error because the
antibodies were not respond to her blood and the result that we expected to see at the beginning
is true.
References:

[1]

Scoville H. (ND). Multiple Alleles [online] Available :

http://evolution.about.com/od/Evolution-Glossary/g/Multiple-Alleles.htm [16-March-2015]
[2]

American Society of Hematology. (ND). Blood Basics [Online] Available:

http://www.hematology.org/Patients/Basics/ [15-March-2015 12:21EST]

[3]

Pearson Education. (ND). Blood Types [Online] Available:

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0877658.html [15-March-2015 12:47EST]
[4]

Microbiology. (ND). Antibody - antigen complex [Online] Available :

http://www.microbiologyonline.org.uk/about-microbiology/microbes-and-the-humanbody/antibody-antigen-complex [16-March-2015 9:32EST]
[5]

MedlinePlus.(ND).Blood Typing [Online] Available:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003345.htm [17-March-2015 10:21EST]
[6]

The Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica.(ND) ABO Blood Group [Online] Available :

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1429/ABO-blood-group-system [17-March-2015
21:21EST]
[7]

O'Neil, D. (ND). [Online] Available : http://anthro.palomar.edu/blood/ABO_system.htm [17March-2015 21:30 EST]