Latest Red blood cell Stories

Researchers at Whitehead Institute have identified a protein that is the target of glucocorticoids, the drugs that are used to increase red blood cell production in patients with certain types of anemia, including those resulting from trauma, sepsis, malaria, kidney dialysis, and chemotherapy. The discovery could spur development of drugs capable of increasing this protein's production without causing the severe side effects associated with glucocorticoids. "This research is medically...

SAN DIEGO, June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (HemaQuest), a biotechnology company focused on developing small molecule therapeutics to treat hemoglobin disorders, announced today that it has completed enrollment in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2b study of HQK-1001 in patients with sickle cell disease. The study, initiated in July 2012, enrolled a total of 77 patients in clinical sites in the US, Canada, Jamaica, Egypt and Lebanon....

Funding for IND Application and Clinical Trial of Novel and Potentially Curative Approach RICHMOND, Calif., May 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced that the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has granted the Company a $6.4 million Strategic Partnership Award to develop a potentially curative ZFP Therapeutic for beta-thalassemia based on the application of its zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) gene-editing technology in hematopoietic...

Washington University in St. Louis [ Watch The Video Red Blood Cells Bifuracating in Capillary ] In an engineering breakthrough, a Washington University in St. Louis biomedical researcher has discovered a way to use light and color to measure oxygen in individual red blood cells in real time. The technology, developed by Lihong Wang, PhD, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, could eventually be used to determine how oxygen is delivered to normal and...

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that macrophages – white blood cells that play a key role in the immune response – also help to both produce and eliminate the body's red blood cells (RBCs). The findings could lead to novel therapies for diseases or conditions in which the red blood cell production is thrown out of balance. The study, conducted in mice, is published today in the online...

BRONX, N.Y., March 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that macrophages - white blood cells that play a key role in the immune response - also help to both produce and eliminate the body's red blood cells (RBCs). The findings could lead to novel therapies for diseases or conditions in which the red blood cell production is thrown out of balance. The...

Transfusion of donated blood more than three weeks old results in impaired blood vessel function, a new study of hospital patients shows. Blood banks now consider six weeks to be the maximum permitted storage time of blood for use in transfusion, but recent studies have suggested transfusing blood stored for more than a few weeks has adverse effects in patients undergoing cardiac surgery or critical care. The new finding suggests a mechanism explaining why older blood might be...

Alan McStravick for redorbit.com – Your Universe Online Over the past five years, studies have been conducted exploring the efficacy of transfused blood in delivering oxygen throughout the body. More specifically, those studies focused on the breakdown of nitric acid contained in red blood cells. The deterioration of the nitric acid begins almost immediately after blood is drawn from a donor. Regardless of how much oxygen may be contained in a red blood cell, if there is an insufficient...

The results are significant because they can help to improve our understanding of medical conditions, such as thrombosis, aneurysms and arteriosclerosis. The research team is publishing its results in Physical Review Letters and the American Physical Society has highlighted the work on its Physics website, placing it on the Focus List of important physics news. Blood flows differently than water. Anyone who has ever cut themselves knows that blood flows viscously and rather erratically....

Whitehead Institute researchers have identified a previously unrecognized layer of genetic regulation that is necessary for the generation of undesirable white fat cells. When this regulation is disrupted, white fat cells are unable to accumulate lipid droplets or mature from their precursors. "We're trying to figure out what the mechanism is—what it takes to make fat cells," says Whitehead Founding Member Harvey Lodish, who is also a professor of biology and a professor of...