Conclusions
For the first time, we have confirmed the effect of Rh genotype on human
viability (health) in the sample of subjects directly Rh-genotyped by a
molecular method. We demonstrated that the effect is modulated by the
sex of the subjects – Rh-positive women had worse and Rh-positive men
had better physical health than Rh-negative homozygotes. These results
strongly suggest that the performance of Rh-positive subjects depends on
heterozygote/homozygote ratio, which could strongly vary depending on
the frequency of the Rh-negative allele in the general population and
the method of recruitment of participants to the study. This strongly
underlines that the performance and health of subjects with different
Rh-genotypes, not just phenotypes, should be compared in future studies.