Final answer:
People with type AB blood have both A and B antigens on their red blood cells and do not have anti-A or anti-B antibodies in their serum, making them universal recipients.
Step-by-step explanation:
People with type AB blood have both type A and type B antigens on their red blood cells (RBCs). Contrary to types A and B which have anti-B and anti-A antibodies in their serum, respectively, type AB individuals do not have such antibodies present in their plasma. Therefore, they do not produce anti-A or anti-B antibodies because their immune system recognizes both antigens as self.
Type AB blood individuals are also known as universal recipients because they can receive red blood cells from donors of any ABO blood type without the risk of an agglutination reaction, which is the clumping of RBCs due to the body's immune response against foreign antigens present on the transfused RBCs.