BACKGROUND Thalassemia intermedia patients usually do not require blood transfusions; however, all show variable degrees of erythropoietic marrow expansion to compensate for more or less marked anemia, and this represents the major cause of complications in untransfused individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS To assess the degree of erythropoietic expansion in thalassemia intermedia, serum erythro...

Women are far more likely than men to suffer from Raynaud's disease. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are gender differences in local or central control of cutaneous blood flow that could account for the increased incidence of Raynaud's disease in women. To assess cutaneous blood flow, hand blood flow (HBF), finger blood flow (FBF), or skin perfusion (SP) was measured by...

Background Foetal haemoglobin (HbF) is a major modifying factor influencing sickle cell disease (SCD) severity. Despite this, HbF estimation is not routinely done in Nigeria. The relationship between HbF and SCD severity among affected children is also poorly studied. Methods In this descriptive cross-sectional study, we determined the relationship between steady state HbF levels and disease ...

Baboons exposed to acute hemolytic stres increase their production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF). Although the maximal in vivo HbF levels attained in 5 treated animals varied from 6.4% to 34.8%, their cultured bone marrow erythroid cells reverted to the fetal pattern of hemoglobin synthesis. These data suggest that HbF synthesis is modulated by the interaction of inhibiting and promoting factors, w...

potent induction of fetal hemoglobin (hbf) production results in alleviating the complications of β-thalassemia and sickle cell disease (scd). hbf inducer agents can trigger several molecular signaling pathways critical for erythropoiesis. janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (jak/stat), mitogen activated protein kinas (mapk) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (pi3k) are con...

OBJECTIVES The increase in hemoglobin (Hb) F level is variably associated to the presence of beta thalassemia trait, and is more typical in presence of deltabeta thalassemia and of hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin. In normal healthy subjects variable levels of HbF are related to the presence of the polymorphism (G)gamma -158 (C>T). Moreover, HbF can also be variably increased in assoc...

BACKGROUND Vasa previa is a rare but potentially dangerous fetal condition that may occur during pregnancy. Ideally, all cases such cases are detected antenatally, but many present as late vaginal hemorrhaging. At the current time, there is no test for fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in general use. METHODS A modified method of identifying HbF is presented. Five milliliters of 0.14 M NaOH was combined...

Human airway trypsin-like protease (HAT) was isolated from airway secretions and localized to bronchial epithelial cells by immunohistochemistry. In the present study, we examined whether HAT could stimulate DNA synthesis and proliferation of primary human bronchial fibroblasts (HBF). HAT significantly stimulated the proliferation of HBF by 20-55%, a level similar to that of the mitogenic activ...

In both sickle cell (SS) anemia and beta-thalassemia (beta-thal), an increase in fetal hemoglobin (HbF) ameliorates the clinical symptoms of the underlying disease. Several pharmacologic agents have been used to elevate HbF levels in adults; however, concerns regarding adverse effects of the prevailing drugs raise an urgent need for other agents capable of stimulating HbF production. We show he...

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is used routinely to monitor long-term glycemic control in people with diabetes mellitus, as HbA1c is related directly to risks for diabetic complications. The accuracy of HbA1c methods can be affected adversely by the presence of hemoglobin (Hb) variants or elevated levels of fetal hemoglobin (HbF). The effect of each variant or elevated HbF must be examined with each sp...