Blood types, which are determined by the presence or absence of various antigens in our blood group, are actually quite a complex and mysterious subject. A blood group that was discovered unexpectedly about 30 years ago reveals that blood types we have never heard of before may also exist.
You will be quite surprised when you learn the story of the emergence of this blood group called “Sara”.
In blood groups, there are hundreds of different antigens that can be found on our red blood cells, and these antigens play a role in determining the names of the groups.
However, apart from these known blood group systems, if there is no antigen in our blood that is common to most people, or if there is an antigen that is not found in most people, it is possible that we have a blood group that we have not heard of before, which is called “rare”.
If the blood in our body has a rare antigen and if the blood belonging to any group that does not have this antigen is transferred to the patient’s body, this transferred blood will naturally be perceived as a foreign substance in the body and cause various reactions.
As an example of this situation, in the 1990s, researchers accidentally analyzed the blood of a young girl named Sarah and encountered different reactions in the blood.
After detailed investigations, a new antigen was discovered in Sarah’s red blood cells that had never been seen before. This was caused by the change of a single nucleotide in the young girl’s DNA sequence, which encodes glycophorin A, one of the main proteins on the surface of red blood cells.
Then the researchers began to analyze the blood of the young girl’s parents and all surviving relatives. These antigens in Sarah were also found in the blood of the family, and this blood group was named “Sara” after Sarah.
The researchers, who had frozen and stored this unique blood, called this unprecedented case belonging to Sarah and her family the “family blood group.”
About 10-15 years after this event, a Canadian mother lost an excessive amount of blood during childbirth and some tests were applied to the mother and the baby in order to ensure the blood supply.
It was detected that there was a blood incompatibility in the baby and this situation was started to be analyzed in detail. The mother’s plasma was tested against more than 50 rare panels, and this blood only reacted with cells belonging to the Sara blood group.
The test results indicated the presence of anti-Sara antibodies in the maternal blood and the mother turned out to be Sara negative. So these antibodies had attacked the baby’s Sara positive cells.
Thus, the Sara blood group is now officially recognized by the International Blood Transfusion Association.
In summary; surprisingly, a different blood type was discovered based on 2 people living in different continents and their families, and this blood type went down in history as unique to only two families in the world.
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