New approach to sickle-cell disease shows promise in mice
Monday, December 7, 2009 - 15:21
in Health & Medicine
A new genetic approach to treating sickle cell disease is showing promising results in mice, report researchers from Children's Hospital Boston. By inactivating a gene they previously discovered to be important in the laboratory, they were able to boost production of a healthy fetal form of hemoglobin in the mice, potentially compensating for the defective adult hemoglobin that causes red blood cells to "sickle" and obstruct blood flow.