International Society of Blood Transfusion Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology Report of Basel and three virtual business meetings: Update on blood group systems

Abstract

Background and Objectives Under the ISBT, the Working Party (WP) for Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology is charged with ratifying blood group systems, antigens and alleles. This report presents the outcomes from four WP business meetings, one located in Basel in 2019 and three held as virtual meetings during the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Materials and Methods As in previous meetings, matters pertaining to blood group antigen nomenclature were discussed. New blood group systems and antigens were approved and named according to the serologic, genetic, biochemical and cell biological evidence presented. Results Seven new blood group systems, KANNO (defined numerically as ISBT 037), SID (038), CTL2 (039), PEL (040), MAM (041), EMM (042) and ABCC1 (043) were ratified. Two (039 and 043) were de novo discoveries, and the remainder comprised reported antigens where the causal genes were previously unknown. A further 15 blood group antigens were added to the existing blood group systems: MNS (002), RH (004), LU (005), DI (010), SC (013), GE (020), KN (022), JMH (026) and RHAG (030). Conclusion The ISBT now recognizes 378 antigens, of which 345 are clustered within 43 blood group systems while 33 still have an unknown genetic basis. The ongoing discovery of new blood group systems and antigens underscores the diverse and complex biology of the red cell membrane. The WP continues to update the blood group antigen tables and the allele nomenclature tables. These can be found on the ISBT website (http://www.isbtweb.org/working-parties/red-cell-immunogenetics-and-blood-group-terminology/).

ABO Blood Groups and Incidence of COVID-19 in the Mass Gathering Events in Borriana (Spain), March 2020: A Retrospective Cohort Study

“…However, no relevant neutralizing activity in ABO has been found in another study [ 63 ], and the levels of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies were also not significantly associated with the ABO Rh(D) group [ 50 ]. On the other hand, there are a total of 43 blood group systems with 345 distinct antigen specificities with variations in human populations [ 64 ] and only four basic ABO groups. It is suggested that the high simplification of the comparisons could result in residual confounding [ 8 ].…”

Search of a genomic sequence database for potential novel blood group antigens: Investigation into why some amino acid substitutions are not immunogenic

“…Support for this assumption comes from the fact that no blood group antigen has been discovered with prevalence >1% and <90% since 1989 for any of the blood group systems we studied. 7,[46][47][48][49] Out of 120 blood group antigens newly-discovered from 1990 to 2022 for any blood group system, 7,[46][47][48][49] only three have prevalence between 1% and 90% (KDAS, DACY, and YCAD of the Knops blood group system 49 ). The remaining 97.5% (117/120) are either high or low incidence antigens.…”

Severe Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn due to Anti-Dia

“…The Diego blood group system is comprised of 23 blood group antigens, three of which are high prevalence and 20 of which are low prevalence [ 1 ]. The Di a antigen was first identified in 1955, when the immune response to this antigen (in Mrs. Diego) was implicated in a fatal case of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) in Venezuela [ 2 ].…”