Blood Groups in Rabbits

THE existence of rabbit blood groups has been known since I929 when Levine and Landsteiner demonstrated immune iso-agglutinins, and subsequently several blood-group factors have been described by different workers. At first, such observations were chiefly of genetic interest, but in recent years the increasing realization of the importance of immunity mechanisms in human blood dyscrasias has opened up new fields of research into isoand autoantibodies active against red cells, leucocytes and platelets. Among small laboratory animals, the rabbit seems especially suited to such investigations since it may be repeatedly transfused and bled without difficulty. Moreover, the rabbit is the most suitable animal for the experiincntal production of erythroblastosis foetalis, since no other species which breeds readily in the laboratory is capable of developing iso-antibodies which pass from the circulation of the pregnant female to that of the foetus in utero and which are capable of effecting destruction of red cells in vivo. For these reasons, rabbit blood groups are of increasing importance in experimental haematology. In the present work a rabbit blood-group system is described in which the iso-agglutinogciis arc probably determined by allelomorphic genes. An attempt is made to relate this grouping system with those previously described by others.