ABO亜型検査におけるフローサイトメトリー法の有用性

抄録

Hemagglutination, the classical laboratory technique for blood group identification, is simple and sufficient for routine ABO blood grouping. As a qualitative assay, however, hemagglutination has certain limitations: it cannot be relied upon to quantify ABO antigens on red blood cells or indicate the ABO blood type of various subgroups. On the other hand, flow cytometry (FCM) can quantify A and B antigens on red blood cells. Here, we examined the expression patterns and levels of A and B antigens using FCM in patients with the mosaic A blood subgroup. The histogram pattern of A antigen revealed a bimodal distribution of fluorescence intensity with two peaks corresponding to group A and O blood cells. Furthermore, we examined the expression patterns and levels of A and B antigens using FCM in patients with the cisA₂B₃ blood type. The histogram pattern of A antigen by FCM analysis showed a relative sharp spike with a mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of 1,000 versus 2,000 in controls. In contrast, the histogram pattern of B antigen by FCM analysis was relatively wide, with a low MFI compared with controls. These findings suggest that FCM analysis of A and B antigens is a useful tool in the identifying ABO subgroups.