Hydroxyurea (HU) has been used clinically to reduce the frequency of painful crisis and the need for blood transfusion in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. However, the mechanisms underlying such beneficial effects of HU treatment are still not fully understood. Studies have indicated a weak correlation between clinical outcome and molecular markers, and the scientific quest to develop companion biophysical markers have mostly targeted studies of blood properties under hypoxia. Using a common-path interferometric technique, we measure biomechanical and morphological properties of individual red blood cells in SCD patients as a function of cell density, and investigate the correlation of these biophysical properties with drug intake as well as other clinically measured parameters. Our results show that patient-specific HU effects on the cellular biophysical properties are detectable at normoxia, and that these properties are strongly correlated with the clinically measured mean cellular volume rather than fetal hemoglobin level.
CITATION STYLE
Hosseini, P., Abidi, S. Z., Du, E., Papageorgiou, D. P., Choi, Y., Park, Y., … So, P. T. C. (2016). Cellular normoxic biophysical markers of hydroxyurea treatment in sickle cell disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(34), 9527–9532. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1610435113
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.