Introduction:

The immune system can recognize a large number of antigens when it is exposed to them; B Lymphocytes produces a great variety of antibodies, in order to generate the specificity of the receivers for the recognition of said antigens. The presence to irregular antibodies is one of the causes to the adverse reactions to the transfusion when for blood incompatibility between donor and receptor.

Objective:

To describe the genetics, structure and function of irregular antibodies in blood donors.

Methods:

A literature review was carried out, in English and Spanish, through databases such as Pubmed, ScienceDirect, NCBI, Redalyc and Scielo of articles published in the last 10 years.

Analysis and synthesis of information:

The immune system generates a great diversity of antibodies through the somatic recombination process between the Variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) segments of the germ line of immunoglobulins, as a defense mechanism of the organism against foreign substances or antigens. Irregular antibodies are those other than the ABO blood system and those most commonly found in blood donors are anti-D, anti-E, anti-K, and anti-M.

Conclusions:

The clinical significance of irregular antibodies in donors is based on their association with hemolytic reactions, due to the ability of antigens in some blood groups to generate IgG-type antibodies that cause premature erythrocyte lysis.

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