The Yt antigen system (also known as Cartwright) is present on the membrane of red blood cells and helps determine a person's blood type. The antigens are found on the protein acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme which helps break down acetylcholine. The Yt system features two alleles, Yt(a) and Yt(b). Antibodies against the Yt system can lead to transfusion reactions such as hemolytic anemia.
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“Such is the remorseless progression of human society, shedding lives and souls as it goes on its way. It is an ocean into which men sink who have been cast out by the law and consigned, with help most cruelly withheld, to moral death. The sea is the pitiless social darkness into which the penal system casts those it has condemned, an unfathomable waste of misery. The human soul, lost in those depths, may become a corpse. Who shall revive it?”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)