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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Transfusion. 2015 Jul;55(0):S47–S58. doi: 10.1111/trf.13147

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Organ distribution of blood group antigens. A schematic representation for the antigen distribution of some clinically relevant blood group systems is shown. ABO antigens are formed by carbohydrates expressed on the surfaces of many cells in the human body. When an individual carries active ABO genes, the ABO antigens are expressed on red blood cells (RBC) and even more strongly on some tissues other than RBC, such as kidney, lung, liver and intestine. The ABO antigens are also soluble in the plasma of persons and then attach passively to cells that do not express the ABO antigens by themselves.43 Modified from Nydegger et al.44 and reprinted with permission.