23 Unheard O Blood Type Facts: Explore More About This Universal Donor

Blood type O is one of the blood groups and is also the most common blood type in humans.

People with blood group O are eligible to donate their blood to people with other blood group types. Due to this reason, persons with type O blood are called universal donors.

Blood is the main constituent of our body that is responsible for several vital functions, including transport of nutrients and hormones from one cell to another, delivery of oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the cells, regulation of body temperature, as well as fighting off the invading pathogens in our body.

More than 95% of the total blood in the body is produced in the bone marrow, and the spleen is responsible for the storage of this blood.

Four main components make up the blood, which are plasma, platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. All these four components have their own specific set of functions that are necessary for sustaining life.

Of these four components, red blood cells play a major role in the transportation of oxygen from the lungs to all the cells present in the body, in the form of oxyhemoglobin. The RBCs contain a pigment called hemoglobin (Haem: iron, globulin: protein) which binds with the inhaled oxygen and forms the oxyhemoglobin.

Apart from transportation, blood plays an important role in the immune system of our body. Certain molecules, called antigens, are capable of triggering the immune response.

All types of cells possess these antigens that are able to express themselves in a foreign host. As a result, the host body generates an immune response to recognize and destroy the possibly harmful substances. Thus, antibodies are produced by the body, which is a class of specific proteins.

These antibodies form a complex with the antigens on the cells. Depending on the nature of these antigens, two types of blood grouping systems are put forth that are used globally to identify the blood group type. These two types are the ABO blood grouping and the Rh grouping.

Identification of the blood type made blood transfusion safe and effective. Read on to learn more about the O blood group!

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O Blood Group History, O+, O Negative Blood Groups Explained

The Austrian biologist Karl Landsteiner, in 1901, recognized the four blood group types in humans. These four blood group types are collectively called the ABO grouping, which is mainly based on the presence or absence of the surface antigens A and B on the RBC.

Likewise, the plasma or the serum in our body contains two natural antibodies, which are called anti-A and anti-B.

Thus, based on the absence or presence of the antibody and antigen, Landsteiner developed his theory of ABO blood grouping, which states that if a particular antigen is present on the surface of the RBC, then the same antibody should be absent from the plasma.

Similarly, the absence of an antigen on the RBC will result in the presence of the corresponding antibody in the plasma.

The immune system of our body is tolerant to its antigens present on the RBC and therefore does not produce any antibody against it. For example, a person with blood type B has antigen B on the cell surface, but no antibody B is present in the plasma.

Instead, antibody A is present in the plasma that is capable of destroying other types of antigens.

Failure to adhere to this theory, and injecting a different blood group type in a person's body, will lead to a mismatch of the antibody and the antigens.

This will cause the antibodies to attack the antigens of its own body. Blood transfusion, thus, brings significant threats if the blood types are not matched properly.

The four types of blood groups are A, B, O, and AB. Among these four types, blood group O is the most in-demand blood type required in blood transfusions.

People with this blood group are able to donate their blood to everyone. The person with blood type AB is a universal recipient due to the lack of any antibodies in the blood plasma.

Blood group O is devoid of any antigens on the RBC surface and possesses both types of antibodies in the blood plasma, thus reducing the chances of mismatch during blood transfusions.

It is, therefore, mandatory for all hospitals and nursing homes to maintain a steady stock of the type O blood in their inventories, which may come as a requirement for newborns or other emergency patients.

In addition to the antigens on the RBC surface, a specific protein known as the Rh or Rhesus factor can be present. Its presence marks it as a positive blood type, while the absence marks it as a negative blood type.

More than 73% of the population is known to be O Rh-positive, who are major contributors of blood in transfusions.

The O RH negative type is considered the safest blood type that is given to patients prior to the completion of the cross-match blood test. They are given in emergency transfusions as well.

O Blood Group Antigen And Antibody

The type O blood group bears no antigen but contains both antibody A and Antibody B in the blood plasma. While they can donate blood to every other person with a different blood group type, they only get blood from people with O blood type.

The O types with Rh-positive can receive both O positive and O negative types of blood. However, the type O blood, which is RH negative, is only eligible to take blood from O negative people.

This is primarily and mainly due to the reason that the blood group O contains both types of antibodies, capable of stimulating an immune response in the body, thereby signaling the destruction of the body's own cells.

O Blood Group As Universal Donor

People with type O blood have been proved to be more prone to various health risk factors like contracting viral infections. Several types of research have proved that blood biochemistry can influence our health.

Although this is the most common blood type, a higher incidence of duodenal cancer is observed in the blood group O people than other blood types.

O negative blood individuals also have less chance of developing pancreatic cancer. Again, these people have less chance of acquiring cognitive disorders or circulatory diseases.

The World Congress on Acute Heart Attack of 2017 put forth the fact that the person's blood type can influence the heart disease occurrence in them. People with O-positive blood are less likely to develop strokes, heart attacks, and other forms of heart disease.

It is also believed in the medical community that people with negative RH factor is more susceptible to mental disorders.

Various viral infections can affect the immune systems, thereby imposing greater health risks on these people. The health risks and these diseases can be easily managed by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

However, the influence of this common blood type on personality traits is still under debate. The Japanese believe that O blood type people are likely to be more generous and social. They also consider them to be more successful financially and that they pair well with people having blood group A.

38% of the world's population has O positive blood group. They receive blood only from their own blood type since the red cells contain both the antibodies A and B.

According to research conducted by the Yale University Fertility Center in 2011, women with type O blood are more likely to face complications during their pregnancy.

This is due to the fact that type O blood can result in excessive production of the Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), which in turn leads to decreased ovarian activity. Thus, these women will eventually struggle to become pregnant with age.

How does a person get O negative blood?

The O negative blood type is an extremely in-demand blood type and is found in all hospitals and nursing homes. More than 13% of the blood donors are with O negative blood type.

Emergency units, as well as ambulances, possess these O negative blood types, which are given to patients who suffer from severe blood loss.

Children and newborn babies are also transfused with the O negative blood types in cases of emergencies. Therefore, such a blood type is very important in the healthcare departments that face the constant challenge of accumulating this kind of type O blood.

However, O negative blood type can only receive blood from O negative donors. This is due to the fact that the Rhesus factor is absent in this type of red blood cells.

So the type O blood with the presence of this factor will lead to a mismatch in the O negative blood type. The immune system of the body will treat this as a foreign antigen and will thereafter lead to the antigen-antibody complex formation by the process of agglutination.

This will, in turn, cause the breakdown of the red blood cells in the universal blood type.

This imposes an extreme disadvantage of the O negative blood. A person will only be O negative if both the parents lack the rhesus factor with blood group O.

This makes it a rare blood type. More than half of the children born will be Rh-positive if the mother is negative, but the father is positive.

Caucasians have these negative blood types more commonly than Asians and Africans. It is considered to be one of the rarest blood types in Asians, and only one percent of the Asians have negative type O blood.

Four percent of the Africans have this negative blood type O. They are less susceptible to pancreatic cancer than the positive blood groups.

Red cells with the rhesus factor in human blood are also more immune to malarial infections, which are known to attack the RBCs and infect them.

Due to the presence of both antibodies in this non-positive blood type O, the malarial virus, Plasmodium species, fail to multiply in the body. Thus, we can conclude that people with O negative blood types are the healthiest and may live longer.

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