Researchers Model Fetal-To-Adult Hemoglobin Switching: Important
Step Towards Cure For Blood Diseases Researchers have engineered
mice that model the switch from fetal to adult hemoglobin, an
important step towards curing genetic blood diseases such as
sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia. The research is
published in the February 2011 issue of the journal Molecular
and Cellular Biology. They also produced for the first time a
mouse that synthesizes a distinct fetal-stage hemoglobin, which
was necessary for modeling human hemoglobin disorders. These
diseases manifest as misshapen hemoglobin, causing anemia, which
can be severe, as well as other symptoms, which can range from
minor to life-threatening. The cure would lie in causing the
body to revert to use of fetal hemoglobin. “The motivation for
our research is to understand the basic mechanisms of gene
regulation in order to cure human disease,” says Thomas Ryan of
the University of Alabama Birmingham, who led the research. “If
we can figure out how to t