Age-related changes in erythrocyte agglutinability in Hiroshima subjects

¹ Departments of Medicine, Clinical Laboratories, and Statistics of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Japan

As part of a physiologic aging assessment in survivors of the atomic bombing, agglutinability of erythrocytes with A and B antisera was studied in 1,495 subjects in Hiroshima. It was found that erythrocyte agglutinability is maximal during the third decade and falls progressively with advancing years. At age 20–40, agglutinability of erythrocytes from females was somewhat less than that of males. Subjects of blood group AB demonstrated agglutinability titers with both antisera comparable to the titers of the group A and B subjects. Analysis of agglutinability titers in relationship to degree of irradiation from the Hiroshima atomic bomb in 1945 failed to show differences, but the sample was too small to allow definite conclusions about possible radiation-accelerated aging.

Note:
With the Technical Assistance of N. Ueda