The latest electronic edition of the journal Nature Genetics reports the discovery of a new gene responsible for congenital sideroblastic anemia, a rare disease, mainly characterized by the presence of ringed sideroblasts in the patients' bone marrow.

University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have identified the specific biological mechanisms believed to lead to a rare and incurable blood disease known as Diamond Blackfan anemia (DBA). Scientists say with further investigation, their discoveries could result in drastic changes to current thinking about treatment for this disease and may lead to promising new drug therapies.

Gluten sensitive enteropathy (GSE) is an autoimmune enteropathy due to food gluten intolerance in genetically predisposed people. While GSE was thought to be a rare disease in the past and was believed to be essentially a disease of Europeans, recent screening studies showed that GSE is one of the most frequent genetically based diseases occured worldwide.

Access to maternal health-care is extremely limited and poor nutrition, anemia and malaria are widespread in eastern Burma, which increases the risk of pregnancy complications, says new research published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine.

Maintaining sufficient red blood cell levels is important to the physical and mental health of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a study appearing in the January 2009 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The findings indicate that preventing anemia in kidney disease patients should be an integral part of their care.

For patients with chemotherapy-induced anemia, adding intravenous iron to treatment with the drug darbepoetin alfa results in a faster and more potent improvement in response with lower doses of the drug, according to data presented at the 33rd Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Stockholm.

University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have developed a new tool that facilitates diagnosis of anemia related to chronic illness, as well as diseases of iron overload. The results of a study detailing the new tool are published in the August 2008 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press.

A recent study published in American Journal of Hematology demonstrated that Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), a widely used drug to treat anemia, may have a negative impact on the survival of myeloma patients.

Uncertainties about proper use and possible long-term effects of hydroxyurea in the treatment of sickle cell anemia may be wrongly influencing doctors to avoid prescribing it to those in serious need, according to results of a literature review by specialists at Johns Hopkins.

New research published June 4th in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases provides evidence that the risk of anemia is amplified in children simultaneously infected with hookworm and schistosomes or hookworm and trichuris, when compared to the sum of risks for children with singular infections.

Patients with breast cancer who developed anemia during chemotherapy had nearly three times the risk of local recurrence as those who did not, according to a study published in the April 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Researchё a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Long known for its role in preventing anemia in expectant mothers and spinal birth defects in newborns, the B vitamin folate, found in leafy green vegetables, beans and nuts has now been shown to blunt the damaging effects of heart attack when given in short-term, high doses to test animals.