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the free encyclopedia
Dr. Alexander S. Wiener
(1907-1976), a lifelong resident
of New York City, was recognized
internationally for his
contributions to science. He was
an outstanding leader in the
fields of Forensic Medicine,
Serology, and Immunogenetics. His
pioneer work led to discovery of
the
Rh factor in 1937, along with
Dr.
Karl Landsteiner, and
subsequently to the development of
exchange transfusion methods that
saved the lives of countless
infants with hemolytic disease of
the newborn. He received a
Lasker Award for his
achievement.
At first, Dr. Wiener and Dr.
Lansteiner did not understand the
full significance of their
discovery. They were enagaged in
identifying a range of factors,
such as the M factor, which proved
to have much less significance.
Dr. Wiener named the Rh factor
after the
Rhesus monkeys used as test
subjects. However, by the time he
and Dr. Landsteiner published in
1940, Dr. Wiener was able to
demonstrate the role of Rh
sensitization as a cause of
intragroup hemalytic reactions,
thus increasing the safety of
blood transfusions.
Also, in conjunction with Dr.
Phillip Levine's separate work
which helped identify the Rh
factor as a major cause of
erythroblastosis fetalis, or
Rh disease, he was able to
help solve a major cause of infant
fatality. He created the first
medical procedure to combat the
problem, which he called an
exchange transfusion. It consisted
of a complete blood transfusion
for the affected baby. The method
was further refined by Dr. Harry
Wallerstein, a transfusionist.
Since then, less extreme
methods have been found to deal
with erythroblastosis fetalis.
However, at the time, the
procedure was able to save over
200,000 lives.
A lot of Dr. Wiener's later
work involved examining the
genetics of the Rh factor. In the
process, he became embroiled in
controversy, as an alterate theory
(CDE), which was somewhat simpler
to understand, was also proposed.
Although Dr. Wiener's theories on
the genetics of the Rh factor have
ultimately proven correct, there
are still many who have adopted
the CDE notations, because of
their greater simplicity.
Dr. Wiener's theory is that Rh
inheritance is controlled as
follows:
There is one Rh locus at which
occurs one Rh gene, but this gene
has multiple alleles. For example,
one gene R1 produces one
agglutinogen (antigen) Rh1 which
is composed of three "factors": rh',
Rh(o), and hr' '. The three
factors are analogous to C, D, and
e respectively in the CDE
nomenclature. The d gene does not
exist in Wiener's theory, and, in
fact, has been proven not to exist
at all.
Dr. Wiener spent most of his
career working at the Brooklyn
Jewish Hospital. He also helped
the police with many
investigations, using his
identifications of blood types to
help solve crimes. His original
intent was to find as many factors
in blood to make blood as
identifiable as a fingerprint. Of
course, with modern DNA
technology, that is now possible.
References
- Alexander S. Wiener Rh-Hr
Blood Types
- Landsteiner K, Wiener AS.
An agglutinable factor in human
blood recognized by immune sera
for rhesus blood. Proc Soc
Exp Biol Med 1940;43:223-224.
- Addine Erskine The
Principles and Practices of
Blood Grouping
- Pauline M. H. Mazumdar
Species and Specifcity
- David R. Zimmerman, Rh:
The Intimate History of a
Disease and Its Conquest
Macmillan (1973)
ISBN 0026335301.
