Rh factor -The discovery of Rh factor in the human RBC and its terminology

 Rh factor -The discovery of Rh and its terminology

Rh:-Point 1:-There are total  45  blood group system (including ABO system) of which Rh is one. Rh system .Therefore Rh is  one of forty-five known human blood group systems.

 Point 2: The Rh blood group system again consists of 49 defined subgroups group antigens. However for clinicians it is sufficient to be familiar with  common  five antigens D, C, c, E, and e . These antigens are the most important. We know that there is no d antigen. and Rh negative refer to the Rh(D) antigen only.

 Antibodies to Rh antigens can be involved in hemolytic transfusion reactions and antibodies to the Rh(D) and Rh(c) antigens confer significant risk of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn.

 

Mistake 1:--The term "Rh" was originally an abbreviation of "Rhesus factor." It was so named as such group first  was discovered in 1937 by Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Wiener, who, at the time, believed it to be a similar antigen found in rhesus monkey red blood cells only  which was found later to be not true. .

Mistake 2: It was subsequently learned the human factor is not identical to the rhesus monkey factor. Thus, notwithstanding it is a misnomer, the term survives (e.g., rhesus blood group system and the obsolete terms rhesus factor, rhesus positive, and rhesus negative – all three of which actually refer specifically and only to the Rh D factor and are thus misleading when unmodified.

 Mistake got corrected by  Philip Levine and Rufus Stetson:-à  

The first rhesus blood type as mentioned earlier was discovered in 1937 by Landsteiner and Wiener, who named it after a similar factor found in rhesus monkey blood. The significance of the discovery was not immediately apparent and was only realized in 1940, after subsequent findings by Philip Levine and Rufus Stetson.  

It was recognized that the Rh factor was just one in a system of various antigens. Based on different models of genetic inheritance, two different terminologies were developed; both of them are still in use.