Blood groups

[kleinwolf]

Is it possible to change the blood group by changing eating habits ?

[GDG]

Is it possible to change the blood group by changing eating habits ?

 

AFAIK, no. Your blood group is determined by complex carbohydrate groups that are placed on the surface of your blood cells by enzymes. Changing your blood type would basically require changing the carbohydrates. You could probably do this by gene therapy (assuming you could get gene therapy to work reliably), or by the repeated intravenous application of an enzyme that would cleave off the carbohydrates (effectively rendering you type "O"). You would need to keep an effective level of the enzyme in your blood at all times, as every new erythrocyte would be generated with the original blood type.

 

It is unlikely that any enzyme you ate would pass into your bloodstream and still be effective. Digestion does a pretty good job ripping up most proteins.

 

The final possibility would be a small molecule (drug-like) that effectively inhibited one or more of the enzymes that are responsible for the blood type carbohydrates. This would have a chance of making it into the blood stream.

 

The probable downside of a successful change is that your immune system would probably then consider your red blood cells to be "foreign", and lyse them all: instant case of (probably fatal) hemolytic anemia.

 

Why would you want to change your blood type?

[kleinwolf]

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong section, I come from physics, and not medicine.

 

I don't want to change my blood, I wondered if this could happen accidentally, by changing eating habits due to external factors (change the region, radioactivity induced mutations, aso).

 

I see what you mean : you're doubting people use this for criminal activities and not be caught ?

 

I wrote "possible to" and should write "possible that blood changes..."

Edited April 17, 2009 by kleinwolf

[GDG]

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong section, I come from physics, and not medicine.

 

I don't want to change my blood, I wondered if this could happen accidentally, by changing eating habits due to external factors (change the region, radioactivity induced mutations, aso).

 

I see what you mean : you're doubting people use this for criminal activities and not be caught ?

 

I wrote "possible to" and should write "possible that blood changes..."

 

AFAIK, we are not confined to particular sections. You are certainly free to ask medical questions in the Medicine forum -- and to expect better answers than if you were to ask medical questions in the Physics forum

 

The only things I can think of that could change your blood type are (a) gene therapy or genetic damage; and (b) an enzyme inhibitor (whether a small molecule or a protein).

 

It is possible that an inhibitor exists, and could be found in some edible plant, but I have not heard of any. If the inhibitor sufficiently inhibited the enzymes that decorate your blood cells with carbohydrates, it could effectively convert your type from A or B (or AB) to O. If it affected different enzymes, it might convert your blood type from RH+ to RH-. Depending on just how the inhibitor affects the enzymes, it is also possible that you could go from AB to A only (or B only). Fortunately, in each case this would be a loss of antigens, so your immune system would not respond. You would have to have a sufficient amount of the inhibitor in your system at essentially all times in order to maintain a consistent type O (or Rh-), and when you stopped eating it, your blood type would return as new blood cells were made (you make them constantly).

 

Radiation could damage the genes that encode the enzymes, again possibly changing your blood type to O (or Rh-). However, it is unlikely that radiation would knock out just those enzymes, and do it throughout all the hematopoietic tissue. More likely to kill you first.

 

Gene therapy (or infection with a virus that carried a gene for the enzyme -- I don't think anyone has identified such a virus) could potentially change your blood type from anything to anything else. Again, if this caused you to gain an antigen (e.g., going from O- to A+, or A- to AB-, or O+ to B+, etc.), chances are that your immune system would attack your blood cells.

[jake.com]

AFAIK, we are not confined to particular sections. You are certainly free to ask medical questions in the Medicine forum -- and to expect better answers than if you were to ask medical questions in the Physics forum

 

The only things I can think of that could change your blood type are (a) gene therapy or genetic damage; and (b) an enzyme inhibitor (whether a small molecule or a protein).

 

It is possible that an inhibitor exists, and could be found in some edible plant, but I have not heard of any. If the inhibitor sufficiently inhibited the enzymes that decorate your blood cells with carbohydrates, it could effectively convert your type from A or B (or AB) to O. If it affected different enzymes, it might convert your blood type from RH+ to RH-. Depending on just how the inhibitor affects the enzymes, it is also possible that you could go from AB to A only (or B only). Fortunately, in each case this would be a loss of antigens, so your immune system would not respond. You would have to have a sufficient amount of the inhibitor in your system at essentially all times in order to maintain a consistent type O (or Rh-), and when you stopped eating it, your blood type would return as new blood cells were made (you make them constantly).

 

Radiation could damage the genes that encode the enzymes, again possibly changing your blood type to O (or Rh-). However, it is unlikely that radiation would knock out just those enzymes, and do it throughout all the hematopoietic tissue. More likely to kill you first.

 

Gene therapy (or infection with a virus that carried a gene for the enzyme -- I don't think anyone has identified such a virus) could potentially change your blood type from anything to anything else. Again, if this caused you to gain an antigen (e.g., going from O- to A+, or A- to AB-, or O+ to B+, etc.), chances are that your immune system would attack your blood cells.

 

Are there any examples of this ever happening? I understand that it's unlikely and more than likely fatal, but has it ever happened?

[GDG]

Are there any examples of this ever happening? I understand that it's unlikely and more than likely fatal, but has it ever happened?

 

I was going to say that these are only plausible, but not likely. However, a quick search in PubMed turned up:

• S. Hakomori, Biochim Biophys Acta (1999) 1473(1):247-66, which mentions the fact that some cancer patients with type "O" blood start expressing type "A" (this is possible because most type "O" alleles are caused by a frameshift or terminating mutation in a regular "A" or "B" gene: further mutation in a tumor cell can essentially "undo" that shift and regenerate the "original" allele)
  
• E.R. Littler et al., JAMA (1979) 241(12) "Anomalous Blood Typing from Impersonation" (Abstract: "Biological factitious, and technical reasons have previously been reported for real or apparent changes in blood type. In two cases, an apparent change in blood type resulted from a previous impersonation of the patient by a different person.")
  

 

Haven't read the second one, but the first is certainly plausible.

[jake.com]

I was going to say that these are only plausible, but not likely. However, a quick search in PubMed turned up:

• S. Hakomori, Biochim Biophys Acta (1999) 1473(1):247-66, which mentions the fact that some cancer patients with type "O" blood start expressing type "A" (this is possible because most type "O" alleles are caused by a frameshift or terminating mutation in a regular "A" or "B" gene: further mutation in a tumor cell can essentially "undo" that shift and regenerate the "original" allele)
  
• E.R. Littler et al., JAMA (1979) 241(12) "Anomalous Blood Typing from Impersonation" (Abstract: "Biological factitious, and technical reasons have previously been reported for real or apparent changes in blood type. In two cases, an apparent change in blood type resulted from a previous impersonation of the patient by a different person.")
  

 

Haven't read the second one, but the first is certainly plausible.

 

thanks!