SEROLOGY

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SEROLOGY

• THE STUDY OF BLOOD AND OTHER BODY FLUIDS

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Definitions

• Serology the study of blood and other body
  fluids including saliva, sweat, semen, vaginal
  fluids, feces
• Blood- the most common body fluid, mostly made up
  of water
• Plasma liquid portion
• of blood
• White blood cells
• for immunity, about 1
• WBC for every RBC,
• has a nucleus
• Red blood cells carry
• oxygen, has no nucleus

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definitions cont.

• Agglutination- clumping together of substances,
  useful in typing blood or looking for particular
  diseases
• Antibody a protein made by white blood cells to
  destroy a foreign protein or organisms

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definitions cont

• Antigen- a protein that stimulates the immune
  system to produce antibodies
• Antiserum blood fluid that contains antibodies
  against a specific antigen

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Notes

• Semen contains sperm, DNA can be isolated from
  sperm
• Vaginal secretions may include some cells from
  woman, and also sperm if intercourse has recently
  occurred
• Sweat has lots of salts, and may have dissolved
  toxins
• Feces can gets lots of DNA, but will have not
  only persons DNA but also DNA from food and from
  bacteria in the gut

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DNA two basic types

• Nuclear from the nucleus, has 23 pairs that you
  inherit from both your parents. This DNA is
  linear
• Mitochondrial (mtDNA)- DNA from the mitochondria,
  inhertied only from the mother. This DNA is
  circular

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Blood

• Karl Landsteiner (1901) discovered the ABO
  blood system of blood typing
• Leon Lattes (1915) discovered a way of typing
  dried blood with ABO system

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ABO system

• Blood type is inherited
• Can be used to exclude or to include a person as
  a suspect, or in a paternity case
• It CANNOT absolutely identify a person
• It CAN absolutely exclude a person

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4 blood types with ABO based on the A and the B
antigens on the surface of RBC

• O 45 of population
• A 42 of population
• B 10 of population
• AB 3 of population

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Rh factor or -

• Rh stands for rhesus factor, first identified in
  rhesus monkeys
• Rh is another antigen on the surface of RBC.
• It is inherited separately from the A and B
  antigens

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Blood donation

• AB is the universal recipient
• O is the universal donor
• If you are Rh , you can accept or
• If you are Rh -, you can only accept -

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The genetics of blood types

• Because we inherit our blood type from each of
  our parents, we have two genes for blood type.
• Blood type genetic make-up
• A AA or AO
• B BB or BO
• O OO
• AB AB

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What about paternity?
We can use a Punnett square to determine the
possible blood types of a baby if we know the
blood types of the parents
A O
B B
AB AO AB AO
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You try

• Mom has type AB blood
• Dad has type BO
• What are babys possible blood types?

A B
B O
AB BB AO BO
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TRICKIER!

• A woman has type A blood. Her baby has type O
  blood. She claims that man (type B blood) is the
  father. Is this possible?

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A O
AB BO AO
OO
B O
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Detecting blood at a crime scene

• Kastle-Meyer Color change due to a chemical the
  indicator reaction between the iron in the blood
  and the K-M solution
• Hemastix same basis as K-M, but n a stick
• Luminol- fluorescence of even the tiniest amounts
  of blood after a long period of time, even if
  surface has been washed.

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Human vs. other animal blood

• Human blood differs from other animal blood

Human dog cat