Thalassemic patients were found to present a higher prevalence of anti-HAV IgG antibodies than matched healthy subjects from the same geographic area. This finding is difficult to explain, but it may be attributed to the higher vulnerability of thalassemics to HAV infection and to passive transfer of anti-HAV antibodies by blood transfusion.

Beta-thalassemia is a serious, potentially life-threatening disease that affects red blood cells, cells that carry oxygen via hemoglobin throughout the body. As part of the SardiNIA Study of Aging, supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the National Institutes of Health, scientists have found a genetic variant in the BCL11A gene that can explain why some people with beta-thalassemia seem to be protected from most dangerous symptoms.

Today, Panasonic Broadcast in conjunction with leading professional film and video reseller Abel Cine Tech announced its Filmmakers Grant Program called “P2 for a Cause.” The program, intended to foster activism in the professional film and video community, will support the Cooley’s Anemia Foundation’s (CAF) effort to raise awareness of Cooley’s Anemia, also known as thalassemia.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered a novel cause of iron overload in patients with thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder that causes anemia. According to the study, thalassemia patients overproduce a protein called GDF15, which suppresses the production of a liver protein, hepcidin, which in turn leads to an increase in the uptake of dietary iron in the gut.

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers studying hemoglobin genes, mutations of which play a role in genetic blood disorders like sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia, have identified two proteins that are responsible for regulating overlapping groups of genes during the development of red blood cells.

6% of the patient population in Melbourne carries a genetic abnormality implicated in thalassemia. As well as causing blood disorders and severe mental retardation, boys with ATRX mutations have genital abnormalities.