Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019045 (hemoglobinopathies)
 2,704 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Genetic and biochemical evidence indicates that in beta-thalassemia there is impaired synthesis of the beta-globin chains of hemoglobin A. In patients heterozygous for the hemoglobinopathies, hemoglobin S and hemoglobin C, the mutant beta-chain is produced in smaller amounts than normal beta(A). Defective m-RNA translation has been suggested as a possible cause of decreased beta-globin polypeptide synthesis in thalassemia and the hemoglobinopathies. In the present study, the ribosomal assembly of beta-globin chains was examined in the peripheral, nucleated red blood cells and reticulocytes of patients with Cooley's anemia, thalassemia intermedia, sickle thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, hemoglobin C disease, and in hemolytic anemias not associated with a hemoglobinopathy. The translation times of beta(A), beta(S), and beta(C) did not differ significantly (average times; beta(A) = 75 sec, range 43-114, beta(S) = 69 sec, beta(C) = 92 sec). In thalassemia, no evidence was found for a delay in translation as the cause of the marked impairment of beta-globin synthesis. In several specimens of peripheral blood from thalassemic patients, the translation time of the beta-chain was even shorter than in nonthalassemic specimens (average time = 45 sec, range 35-59). The results suggest that the defect in beta-globin synthesis in beta-thalassemia is due to impaired initiation of beta-globin chain assembly or a quantitative deficiency in m-RNA.
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PMID:Translation of -globin m-RNA in -thalassemia and the S and C hemoglobinopathies. 500 20

The development of clinical and histopathologic manifestations of a diffuse elastic tissue defect, resembling inherited pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), has been encountered with a notable frequency in patients with beta thalassemia, sickle cell disease, and sickle thalassemia. The PXE-like clinical syndrome, consisting of skin, ocular, and vascular manifestations, has a variable severity in these hemoglobinopathies and it is age-dependent, with a generally late onset, after the second decade of life. The defect is believed to be acquired rather than inherited and related to the consequences of the primary disease. The high prevalence of the findings implicates the elastic tissue injury as one of the main comorbid abnormalities encountered in beta thalassemia and the sickling syndromes. In these patients a number of complications, sometimes serious, has been recognized to be related to ocular and vascular elastic tissue defects. Because several organ systems are involved, each medical specialty should be aware of the phenomenon. This coexistence, on the other hand, introduces a novel pathogenetic aspect of PXE and an important research challenge.
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PMID:Elastic tissue abnormalities resembling pseudoxanthoma elasticum in beta thalassemia and the sickling syndromes. 1175 49