Progenika, Inc. today announced that it has entered into an agreement with ARUP Laboratories (ARUP) of Salt Lake City, UT, to provide blood group genotyping reference laboratory services to ARUP to determine patient red blood cell antigen profiles when serology has logistic and functional limitations. Progenika’s blood group genotyping microarray, which simultaneously detects over 100 genetic variants in the nine blood group systems that are most relevant to transfusion safety, overcomes these serological limitations.
Progenika’s blood group genotyping supports disease management for patients whose condition requires chronic transfusions. It allows for the accurate identification of red blood cell antigens in patient serum, even in the presence of auto- or allo-antibodies, whether these antigens are common or rare, highly or poorly antigenic, or abundantly or weakly expressed. Blood group genotyping is useful for patients with conditions such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia, autoimmune hemolytic anemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma, in which red blood cells are coated with immunoglobulins (DAT+) that interfere with the antibodies used for serotyping. It is also useful for individuals with genetic diseases that require frequent transfusions, such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia, who may develop antibodies to low-immunogenicity antigens present on donor red blood cells. For these particular patients, precise identification of genetic variants early on will facilitate blood matching in subsequent transfusions. Progenika’s genotyping may also be used for individuals who have RhD variants with low antigen expression or with reduced numbers of antigenic epitopes, where serotyping may yield inconclusive calls.