Blood group antigens are carbohydrates that are attached to proteins or lipids. An antigen is a substance foreign to the body that causes an immune response. An immune response occurs when antibodies, which are proteins in your immune system, are summoned to attack an antigen.
Blood that reaches the lungs travels throughout a network of small blood vessels, where oxygen moves into the blood and carbon dioxide moves out of the blood, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
A. Once blood travels through the pulmonic valve, it enters your lungs. This is called the pulmonary circulation. From your pulmonic valve, blood travels to the pulmonary artery to tiny capillary vessels in the lungs. Here, oxygen travels from the tiny air sacs in the lungs, through the walls of the capillaries, into the blood. At the same time, carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, passes from the blood into the air sacs. Carbon dioxide leaves the body when you exhale. Once the blood is purified and oxygenated, it travels back to the left atrium through the pulmonary veins.