[Blood group phenotyping and their application in Taiwan]

During the 1950's and 60's as new blood group systems were identified, antigen distribution studies were performed in Europe and North America among Caucasians and American Blacks. However, to date only limited studies have been performed in Africa and Asia. Because of lack of knowledge of the antigen distribution of most other than ABO and Rho (D) blood group systems within these areas and among the people of non-Caucasian races, questions of testing needs and problems have occurred. In recent years, three big matters have been encountered off and on in blood banking in Taiwan. First, multiple-transfusion recipients develop so many alloantibodies that finding compatible donors becomes a difficult task. Second, since bone marrow transplantation technology is being instituted in many teaching hospitals, it is a task of blood banks to monitor the antigen changes of other blood group systems (including of Rh system other than D) before and after transplantation. Third, more than enough disputed paternity cases that can not be resolved by simple ABO testing. Therefore, blood banks should be staffed with suitable backgrounds to cope with the procedures needed for analysing all blood group antigens. In order to resolve all the problems effectively, we ran the tests for blood group antigens other than ABO and D in our blood bank from 1984 to 1986. A total of 31 sets of antisera were used to identify the specificity of 13 blood group system antigens of the Chinese population ranging from 99 to 2257. Based on the datum obtained, we found a significant difference between Chinese and Caucasians in the distribution of eight blood group systems (Rhesus, MNSs, Kell, Duffy, Kidd, P, Lutheran and Colton). The antigen frequency of Fya and s are 99.74, 99.91 respectively. The results are higher than those of the Caucasian population. On the other hand, Fyb and S are 9.22 and 6.56, much lower than those in Caucasians. We found no K, Lua and Cob antigens among the Chinese. We conclude that this study is a significant contribution to the knowledge of blood group antigen systems and antigen distribution, and also will benefit this population in many areas of medical care.