MIMA-123 evaluation - Essay Example

Dombrock defined an unrecognized red cell antigen, which was ultimately named Doa (Swanson et al.1965). Eight years later, the antithetical antigen to Doa was identified and appropriately named Dob (Molthan et al 1973). The two antigens were put in the Dombrock blood group system (DO) and assigned IBST 014 by the International Society for Blood Transfusion (Lewis et al.1985). The Dombrock blood group started as a polymorphic system comprised of the two alleles, DOA and DOB. The antigens Doa and Dob are found on a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-linked glycoprotein belonging to the ADP-ribosyltransferases (ARTs) family.

ARTs catalyze the transfer of ADP-ribose from β-NAD+ to certain amino acid residues of target proteins (Ueda & Hayaishi, 1985). ADP-ribosylation is physiologically important because the process leads to protein inactivation, and in some cases pathogenecity; because this action has been related to that of bacterial toxins (Corda & Di Girolamo, 2003). In 1992, it was discovered that the Gregory (Gya) negative phenotype RBCs were also Do (a-b-) in addition to being Holley (Hy) and Joseph (Joa) negative as previously described (Banks et al.1992). Gya and Hy are high prevalence antigens which were first described in 1967, while the Joa antigen was described in 1972 (Reid 2003).

Through immunoblotting analysis, Gya, Hy, and Joa antigens were found on the same glycoprotein where the Do antigens reside (Spring et al.1994). The Gy (a-) phenotype was determined to be the null Dombrock (Donull) phenotype (Reid, 2003). Consequently, Gya, Hy, and Joa antigens were included in the Dombrock blood group system. In 2009, a new Do-related high-prevalence antigen named DOYA was discovered and added to the Dombrock group (Warke et al.2008; Daniels et al.2009), bringing the total to six distinct antigens in the Dombrock blood group.

The current ISBT terminology for the Dombrock blood group system is shown in