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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Ex vivo Mimicry of Normal and Abnormal Human Hematopoiesis
Published on: April 10, 2012
Abstract:
Hemoglobin chain synthesis during leukemic processes has been studied on patients having fetal hemoglobin. All cases showed the following abnormalities : (1) a relatively increased synthesis of the beta chain ; (2) an important increase of the free dimeric precursors pool, with, most of the time, a predominance of alpha chain. If the first point suggests an alpha-thalassemia feature, the presence of free alpha chains shows evidence for a more complex mechanism not only due to a decrease of messenger RNA. The hypothesis of a clonal disorder could neither be demonstrated nor ruled out. The observed abnormalities could be due to a defect in a alpha chain depending regulation mechanism.
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