ABO Blood Grouping of Non-Medullated Scalp Hair Using Immunohistochemical Staining

    January 2010 in “ Nihon Hou Kagaku Gijutsu Gakkaishi ”
    Tomoko Akutsu, Hiroshi Ikegaya, Ken Watanabe, Koichi Sakurada
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    TLDR The modified staining method can determine the ABO blood group of hair samples accurately.
    In this study, researchers modified the immunohistochemical staining protocol to determine the ABO blood group of non-medullated scalp hair. They found that using 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine as a substrate resulted in positive staining of the hair cortex, but non-specific staining in medullated hair. This issue was mitigated by blocking with 10% normal rabbit serum at 37°C for 1 hour. In a blind trial, the modified method successfully determined the ABO blood group of all hair samples. The study concluded that this protocol is useful for screening hair samples before DNA analysis.
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