The Inheritance of the Rh Blood Groups

Abstract

Dosage studies of 114 Down’s syndrome and 7 other autosomal trisomies failed to show any lengthening of reaction times of the Rh antigens or of S, Fy^a, Jk^a or Jk^b, nor was there any alteration in reaction times for Xg^a in 13 Turner’s and 7 Klinefelter’s. Distribution of length of reaction times was tabulated for the Rh antigens c, E and e in 200 families and the C and D antigens in individual families. The reaction times of at least 2 members of 5 families fell outside the expected range. Two of the deviations were explicable on the basis of known causes (-D- and depression of D by r'). The reasons for a second deviation in one of these 2 families and of a deviation in 2 others is uncertain. In the fifth family the cause was an unlinked Rh depressor gene.