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In our blood center, we have been screening red cells of donors with various antibodies (monoclonal antibodies, human antisera), Ulex lectin and 2 M urea by the use of Groupamatic-2000 machine and manual technique. We detected 522 donors of the rare phenotype bloods (Rh-positive —Oh: 1, para-Bombay: 2, -D-: 11, Lu (a-b-)·In (Lu): 2, Ko: 10, McLeod-like: 2, Jk (a-b-): 16, SS: 56, Fy (a-b+): 150, Di (a+b-): 53, Jr (a-): 36;Rh-negative— Rhmod: 2, SS: 32, Fy (a-b+): 119, Di (a+b-): 20, Jr (a-): 10).These donors did not contain any irregular antibody in their sera except 1 Bombay and 2 para-Bombay phenotype donors. On the other hand, only 55 rare phenotype donors were detected by antibody screening. Consequently, we are confident that the screening of the rare phenotypes using Groupamatic-2000 machine with monoclonal antibodies is very useful and clinically significant.Our blood center shipped 749 total units of the rare phenotype bloods including 683 units (91.2%) of frozen and thawed red cells from April 1, 1985 to March 31, 1992. Total units shipped of the rare phenotype bloods by all the Japanese Red Cross Blood Centers amounted to 4, 558. Especially, the ratio of Jr (a-) to the total units was 49.3%. Three thousand six hundred and eighteen (79.4%) of the 4, 558 units shipped were frozen thawed red cells.

The proposita was a healthy 51-year-old female donor who was brought to our attention when her serum reacted with all the cells tested except two Ko samples by saline, bromelin, albumin and anti-globulin methods.The proposita's cells failed to react with anti-K, anti-k, anti-Kpa, anti-Kpb, anti-Kpc, anti-Jsa, anti-Jsb and anti-Ku as expected. These negative reactions were reconfirmed by absorption-elution tests with appropriate sera. These findings indicated that the proposita was Ko with anti-Ku in her serum. Furthermore, she was found to be SS besides Ko, which is exceedingly rare in Japanese.A family study disclosed that the Ko phenotype occurred in two successive generations.Our experiments showed that the three samples of anti-Ku including the proposita's were absorbed by cells from the platelets layer, but the other antibodies of the Kell system such as anti-k, anti-Kpb, anti-Kpc and anti-Jsb were not.