Anemia tagged posts

Kim Plevniak, master’s student in biological and agricultural engineering at the Kansas State University Olathe campus, is using 3-D printers to make low cost, point-of-care devices that quickly detect anemia from a drop of blood. Credit: Kansas State University Olathe

Anemia affects 2 billion people worldwide, including >half of preschool children and pregnant women in developing countries and at least 30% of children and women in industrialized nations. Identifying a blood disorder may be as easy as running a blood sample from a finger prick under a smartphone. Point-of-care devices give the user fast, easy-to-understand results from a test performed outside of a lab, such as a blood glucose test or pregnancy test...

CD24 expressed by cells of hematopoietic origin and not cells in stromal compartments is required for extramedullary stress erythropoiesis following in vivo CD24 engagement

This could represent a significant step forward in the battle against anemia, benefitting people with diabetes, kidney disease or cancer, and older people for whom anemia can become a chronic problem. While more work needs to be done before the method could be used in people, the possibilities are tantalizing.

Eg it could allow doctors to turn on red blood cell production whenever necessary;
~be used on the battlefield to triage wounded soldiers until they could receive a blood transfusion; and
~be used to treat people who cannot receive blood transfusions because of religious beliefs.

Note: Anemia is the most common bl...