• Question: why is there not a wider variety of blood types why should the there only be 5 types of cell surface membrane i would expect a larger variety

    Asked by Ayooluwa Oluwasegun Babal to Praveen, Michael, Loan, Gemma, Cristina on 17 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Michael Schneider

      Michael Schneider answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      What a terrific question! The answer is, the variety is much larger than just A, B, AB or O, each of them with or without Rh. These are the MAJOR blood groups, and blood from the matching group can usually be given safely. O-positive is commonest in the UK, and O-negative is usually safe for anyone, as a “universal donor.” But, many other cell surface membrane markers can also be important, less frequently.

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