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1. Introduction
More than a century has passed since the discovery of ABO system by Karl Landsteiner in 1901; this knowledge has contributed to the understanding of some mechanisms basis of heredity, and today it still has a great conceptual and clinical interest [1]; also, blood antigens had been related to predisposing individuals to some diseases like cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases, and heart illnesses [2–4] or protecting individuals against some diseases such as malaria and diabetes [5, 6]. Moreover, blood antigens had been used to evaluate ethnic diversity of human populations [7], for which they have been widely studied in population genetics [8, 9].
The ABO and Rh blood groups are the most relevant antigens because their incompatibility produces hemolysis [10] and hemolytic disease of the newborn in the case of the Rh group [11]. Furthermore, blood antigens play an important role in the success of transfusions and organ transplants [12]; compatibility of ABO groups between donors and recipients is desirable to avoid immune responses against allograft and reducing the use of immunosuppressive therapies.
The main challenge is to understand how to promote tolerant immune responses against allograft tissues; different factors such as age, viral serology, and gender had been studied to identify their relationship with allograft rejection. Additionally, the role of ethnicity has been poorly studied [13–17]. For the above, molecular biology has taken great importance to identify genetic variants present in several ethnic groups that could play an important role in the success of allograft transplants between donors and recipients [18].
There are few works about population genetics in Mexico [19–21]. The first studies were performed by Lisker and colleagues, in indigenous and mestizo populations by studying several blood antigens [9, 22]; however, few populations were studied and currently there is lack of information about blood groups distribution in the country, whereby it is essential to get this information to help health institutions for the effective management of their blood banks that facilitate transplant medicine practices.
Here we report the distribution of ABO and D antigens in 17 states of the country. Additionally,...