New method of blood typing using analytical magnetapheresis

We report a new method of blood typing based on the agglutination of red blood cell (RBC) with serum-treated magnetic particles in analytical magnetapheresis. Blood typing of ABO was demonstrated. The agglutination patterns of RBCs are different for different blood types and can be used to determine the ABO blood typing in analytical magnetapheresis. Six samples can be tested in each run. The running time was less than 10 min. Magnetic particles were prepared in the laboratory. The amount of RBCs needed for the agglutination test was about 1.0 microl of adult blood. The blood typing of ABO was used to illustrate the capable applications of analytical magnetapheresis to nonmagnetic samples like cells without magnetic labels. Analytical magnetapheresis has a great potential for cell related analysis.