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In the year 1900, an Austrian Scientist, Karl Landsteiner,
discovered iso-agglutination, the phenomenon wherein red corpuscles
and serum of the animal species are clumped together. On carrying
out further experiments on blood, Landsteiner discovered that
agglutinogens when mixed with agglutinins of another blood types
produced fatal agglutination.
These agglutinogens were named as A and B,
and their respective agglutinins were named alpha and beta
respectively. With this discovery, the question of blood group
incompatibility was explained. Later, he discovered another blood
type and named it O. In 1907, another scientist Jansky discovered a
fourth type of blood, it was named AB. This discovery was
corroborated by Moss in 1910. These agglutinogens and agglutins were
renamed as antigens and antibodies respectively, specific to the
blood. |
