Hemolytic Disease of The Newborn
In theory, the maternal production of anti-H during pregnancy might cause hemolytic disease in a fetus who did not inherit the mother's Bombay phenotype. In practice, cases of HDN caused in this way have not been described. This may be possible due to the rarity of the Bombay phenotype but also because of the IgM produced by the immune system of the mother. Since IgMs are too heavy to cross the placental barrier (like indeed the IgG do) they cannot reach the blood stream of the fetus provoking an acute hemolytic reaction.
Read more about this topic: Hh Antigen System
Famous quotes containing the words disease and/or newborn:
“I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad.
I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
We’ll no more meet, no more see one another.
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter—
Or rather a disease that’s in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression, like newborn babies or souls just after death. Dazed but curiously dignified.... after a crise ... of hysterical revulsion and tiredness, I passed beyond ... and became entered by a rather sublime feeling.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)