These new blood types can affect blood transfusions, cancer treatments, organ transplants, and pregnancies.

[xurl= http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120223183819.htm ]Blood Mystery Solved: Two New Blood Types Identified[/xurl]

"You probably know your blood type: A, B, AB or O. You may even know if you're Rhesus positive or negative. But how about the Langereis blood type? Or the Junior blood type? Positive or negative? Most people have never even heard of these."

"In the February issue of Nature Genetics, Ballif and his colleagues report on their discovery of two proteins on red blood cells responsible for these lesser-known blood types."

"'Only 30 proteins have previously been identified as responsible for a basic blood type,' Ballif notes, 'but the count now reaches 32.'"

"Both of the newly identified proteins are also associated with anticancer drug resistance, so the findings may also have implications for improved treatment of breast and other cancers."

"Beyond the ABO blood type and the Rhesus (Rh) blood type, the International Blood Transfusion Society recognizes twenty-eight additional blood types with names like Duffy, Kidd, Diego and Lutheran. But Langereis and Junior have not been on this list. Although the antigens for the Junior and Langereis (or Lan) blood types were identified decades ago in pregnant women having difficulties carrying babies with incompatible blood types, the genetic basis of these antigens has been unknown until now."

"This science may be especially important to organ transplant patients. The rejection of donated tissue or blood is caused by the way the immune system distinguishes self from not-self. 'If our own blood cells don't have these proteins, they're not familiar to our immune system,' Ballif says, so the new blood doesn't 'look like self' to the complex cellular defenses of the immune system. 'They'll develop antibodies against it,' Ballif says, and try to kill off the perceived invaders. In short, the body starts to attack itself."

Articles from the latest issue of Nature Genetics:

[xurl= http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v44/n2/abs/ng.1069.html ]ABCB6 is dispensable for erythropoiesis and specifies the new blood group system Langereis[/xurl]

[xurl= http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v44/n2/abs/ng.1075.html ]ABCG2 null alleles define the Jr(a−) blood group phenotype[/xurl]

[xurl= http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v44/n2/abs/ng.1070.html ]Null alleles of ABCG2 encoding the breast cancer resistance protein define the new blood group system Junior[/xurl]