Blood types: Who donates to whom?

You blood types are defined according to the presence or absence of agglutinins and agglutinogens in the individual.

• Agglutinogen: are the antigens that occur on the surfaces of red blood cells. They can be type A and B.
• Agglutinins: are the antibodies that occur in blood plasma. They can be of the anti-A and anti-B type.

According to this classification, there are four blood types, defined as ABO system:

• Type A: have agglutinogen A and agglutinin anti-B.
• Type B: have B agglutinogen and anti-A agglutinin.
• Type AB: contains both agglutinogen A and agglutinogen B and lacks agglutinins.
• Type O: has no agglutinogen or agglutinin.

Blood donation

A blood donation occurs in cases where the person undergoes medical treatments and interventions, blood transfusions, transplants, oncological procedures and highly complex surgeries.

To be a donor it is necessary to meet some criteria, the main ones being that the person is between 18 and 59 years old, do not have any infectious disease, have not had a tattoo or undergone surgery for at least 1 year.

Men can make a maximum of four annual blood donations and women can only make three annual blood donations.

It can only occur between people who have compatible blood types, so there will be no problems for the receiver.

Being compatible means not having problems between recipient agglutinins and donor agglutinogens.

See below the blood type chart that demonstrates who donates to whom.

See too:

• Why fast before having blood drawn? Understand the requirement!
• Blood plasma from cured patients can be used against Covid-19
• Connective tissues: bone and blood