secretor system

secretor system, phenotype based on the presence of soluble antigens on the surfaces of red blood cells and in body fluids, including saliva, semen, sweat, and gastrointestinal juices. The ability to secrete antigens into body fluids is of importance in medicine and genetics because of its association with immune system function and its association with other blood groups, including the Lewis blood group system and the ABO blood group system.

In most populations, nearly 80 percent of people are secretors. It is believed that the presence of water-soluble antigens in the tissues, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract, is of some selective advantage; attempts to correlate secretion with disease have shown that duodenal ulcers (especially in persons with blood type O) and possibly also rheumatic fever and polio are more common in nonsecretors than in secretors.

The secretor system consists of a pair of alleles, designated Se (dominant) and se, in genotypes SeSe and Sese (secretors), and sese (nonsecretors); it is thus a good example of a simple Mendelian genetic system (see heredity). The secretor system is intimately associated with the Lewis system biochemically and genetically. Antigens present in both the secretor system and the Lewis system are encoded by a gene known as FUT2 (fucosyltransferase 2).

For more information on human blood antigens, see blood group.