Sickle Cell Disease-Red Blood Cells-New Technology-Complications

New Technology May Help Predict When Patients Are At Risk For Serious Complications In Sickle Cell Disease

More than 60 years ago, scientists discovered the underlying cause of Sickle Cell disease: People with the disorder produce crescent-shaped Red Blood Cells that clog capillaries instead of flowing smoothly, like ordinary, disc-shaped red blood cells do. This can cause severe pain, major organ damage and a significantly shortened lifespan... read more..

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Red Blood Cells-Megakaryocytes

How Red Blood Cells Get So Big - And The Bad Things That Happen When They Don't

Yale researchers have discovered how megakaryocytes - giant Blood Cells that produce wound-healing platelets - manage to grow 10 to 15 times larger than other blood cells. The findings, to be published March 13 in the journal Developmental Cell, also hint at how a malfunction in this process may cause a form of leukemia... read more..

source:http://bit.ly/wkfgAJ