International Society of Blood Transfusion Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology Report of Basel and three virtual business meetings: Update on blood group systems

• DOI: 10.1111/vox.13361
• Publication Date: 2022-09-19T12:29:36Z
• Authors: Christoph Gassner; Lilian Castilho; Qing Chen; Frederik Banch Cl...; Gregory A. Denomme; Willy A. Flegel; Nick Gleadall; Åsa Hellberg; Yanli Ji; Margaret A. Keller; William J. Lane; Peter Ligthart; Christine Lomas‐F...; Nuria Nogues; Martin L. Olsson; Thierry Peyrard; Jill R. Storry; Yoshihiko Tani; Nicole Thornton; Ellen van der Schoot; Barbera Veldhuisen; Franz Wagner; Christof Weinstock; Silvano Wendel; Connie Westhoff; Vered Yahalom; Catherine A. Hyland
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; Erythrocytes; 0302 clinical medicine; Blood Group Antigens; Immunogenetics; Humans; COVID-19; Blood Transfusion; Pandemics; 3. Good health

AbstractBackground and ObjectivesUnder the ISBT, the Working Party (WP) for Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology is charged with ratifying blood group systems, antigens and alleles. This report presents the outcomes from four WP business meetings, one located in Basel in 2019 and three held as virtual meetings during the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.Materials and MethodsAs in previous meetings, matters pertaining to blood group antigen nomenclature were discussed. New blood group systems and antigens were approved and named according to the serologic, genetic, biochemical and cell biological evidence presented.ResultsSeven new blood group systems, KANNO (defined numerically as ISBT 037), SID (038), CTL2 (039), PEL (040), MAM (041), EMM (042) and ABCC1 (043) were ratified. Two (039 and 043) were de novo discoveries, and the remainder comprised reported antigens where the causal genes were previously unknown. A further 15 blood group antigens were added to the existing blood group systems: MNS (002), RH (004), LU (005), DI (010), SC (013), GE (020), KN (022), JMH (026) and RHAG (030).ConclusionThe ISBT now recognizes 378 antigens, of which 345 are clustered within 43 blood group systems while 33 still have an unknown genetic basis. The ongoing discovery of new blood group systems and antigens underscores the diverse and complex biology of the red cell membrane. The WP continues to update the blood group antigen tables and the allele nomenclature tables. These can be found on the ISBT website (http://www.isbtweb.org/working-parties/red-cell-immunogenetics-and-blood-group-terminology/).