Thread: Anti E Antibody
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Old Fri Aug 3, 2012, 10:56 PM
Greg H Greg H is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lbrown View Post
Hi Greg,

If the antibody levels are undetectable, does that mean you'd still get a reaction?

Thanks,
Deb
Hey Deb!

That is my understanding. Puzzling out the intricacies of the immune system is above my pay grade, but, as I understand it, once you've had an immune reaction to some foreign invader, whether a bacterial infection, the flu, or someone else's red blood cells, your body remembers that invader by keeping on hand a tiny population of B-cells or T-cells that are sensitized to that invader's signature (the antigen proteins or sugars on the outside of its cell).

The job of that remnant population is to be ready to rapidly ramp up production of whole armies of targeted T-cells or B-cells at the first sign of the offending antigen.

But it is a remnant population, so, I suppose, it might not register on the standard screening. But, if the remnant spots that offending red blood cell again, it will rally the troops and mount an attack. The result will be hemolysis -- a bunch of broken red blood cells potentially clogging up the kidneys.

My blood bank person put on her "I'm talking about something very serious here" face when she told me not to even think about getting blood someplace else unless they called her first. And the folks at NIH, who detected the C & e antibodies on a follow-up soon after I acquired them, sent me a formal letter and a wallet card noting I had these antibodies.

The article Birgitta posted is interesting; researchers found about 15% of MDSers getting frequent transfusions acquire antibodies.

Take care!

Greg
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Greg, 59, dx MDS RCMD Int-1 03/10, 8+ & Dup1(q21q31). NIH Campath 11/2010. Non-responder. Tiny telomeres. TERT mutation. Danazol at NIH 12/11. TX independent 7/12. Pancreatitis 4/15. 15% blasts 4/16. DX RAEB-2. Beginning Vidaza to prep for MUD STC. Check out my blog at www.greghankins.com
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