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DNA and blood transfusions?

I saw an episode of Law and Order the other day where the killer left behind some blood at the crime scene. They tested it for DNA and then got DNA from their suspect and they didn't match. It turns out that the suspect had had a blood transfusion a few years earlier, so the blood left behind at the scene would not have matched the DNA on the swab they took from his cheek.

Is that correct? If he had had a transfusion years earlier, wouldn't the blood he got from that have died off and new blood cells would be floating around now? So, after a few years, his blood would be back to his blood, if that makes sense.

I mean, I can see having a strange result like they got with in a short time after the transfusion, but it seems like after a few years his body would have produced enough new blood that the blood he got in the transfusion would be gone.

Am I right or way off?

Thanks, Brian. That is what I was thinking. White blood cells only live for about 2 weeks, if I rememeber correctly, so after, say a month, there would be no chance of finding donor DNA in a person, right?

What if you got a bone marrow transplant? Would donor bone marrow create blood w/ donor DNA instead of your own DNA?

As regards DNA transfer during blood transfusions:
Whole blood transfusions (RBCs, WBCs, platelets, plasma) can result in DNA confusion. However, only white blood cells carry DNA, because red blood cells do not have nuclei, and platelets certainly don't (they aren't even cells anymore).

However, the odds of picking up only one DNA sample from a blood-transfusion recipient, and it being the wrong one, are very low. Exceptionally so. And most of the time you get a transfusion because you've been hurt badly, and so you won't be in much of a shape to go around killing people. If someone DID get a transfusion and then go kill someone, there would be a mix of DNA types in the blood samples.

As regards timeframe:
This is bunk. White blood cells don't live more than a month in all but the rarest cases.

EDIT:
The only way (and I mean the ONLY way) to get DNA confusion years after the fact is in the case of someone who received a bone marrow transplant after having their marrow completely irradiated and destroyed. Red blood cells, and some types of white blood cells, are made in the marrow (they don't reproduce on their own). And as long as you have your own marrow, you will make blood samples with your own DNA fingerprint.

If you have had a marrow transplant, then the blood cells you produce (White only, of course, because again RBCs have no DNA) will have the DNA of the marrow donor.

HOWEVER: Only neutrophils are made in the marrow. Lymphocytes are made in the spleen and thymus - and unless you had THOSE transplanted as well, you would still produce lymphocytes with your specific DNA pattern.

i see ur point but i think (mybe i'm wrong) from what i'm read the new blood from the transfusion also reproduces along w/the old type of blood so that it may still be there but it never completely goes away

If it's the one with the brother that killed the sister, it was because he had a bone marrow transplant from her, that was the only reason she was conceived by the parents in the first place..... can't remember if it was L&O or CSI..... anyways. If a person has a bone marrow transplant (where blood is made to begin with) than yes it can screw with DNA.. but blood transfusions, no.

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