Emily Chan
Tilley and colleagues determined that three patients with the rare blood type did not have this mutation, indicating that blood disorders or certain types of cancer can sometimes cause a lack of the antigen.
“MAL is a very small protein with some interesting properties, which made it difficult to identify and meant we needed to pursue multiple lines of investigation to accumulate the proof we needed to establish this blood group system,” said Tim Satchwell, a cell biologist from the University of the West of England.
To figure out whether they had the correct gene, the team inserted the normal MAL gene into AnWj-negative blood cells, effectively delivering the AnWj antigen to the cells.
The results revealed that all AnWj-negative patients in the study shared the same mutation. But interestingly enough, no other diseases or cell abnormalities were associated with the mutation.
Overall, the new development will help patients receive better healthcare in the future and enable doctors to save more lives.
The study was published in Blood.
