ABSTRACT
The Rh system is so called because the antibodies made in 1940 by Landsteiner and Wiener in rabbits (and later in guinea pigs), in response to injection of rhesus monkey red cells, were thought to be of the same specificity as the human antibody. In 1940 Landsteiner and Wiener, by injecting rabbits with rhesus monkey cells, made an antibody, anti-Rh, which reacted with cells of 85% of white New York donors. The Rh antibodies, including anti-D, rarely bind complement. The usual explanation is that the D antibody-binding sites are too far apart. The category is subdivided by using anti-Dw, an antibody defining a low-frequency Rh antigen and by anti-D from group i of category VI people. The primary classification step is the reaction of cells with anti-Tar, an antibody defining a low-frequency Rh antigen (20) and the characteristic pattern of reactions with selected anti-D from D-people.
