The role of carbon monoxide and heme oxygenase in the prevention of sickle cell disease vaso-occlusive crises.

ABSTRACT: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a painful, lifelong hemoglobinopathy inherited as a missense point mutation in the hemoglobin (Hb) beta-globin gene. This disease has significant impact on quality of life and mortality, thus a substantial medical need exists to reduce the vaso-occlusive crises which underlie the pathophysiology of the disease. The concept that a gaseous molecule may exert biological function has been well known for over one hundred years. Carbon monoxide (CO), although studied in SCD for over 50 years, has recently emerged as a powerful cytoprotective biological response modifier capable of regulating a host of physiologic and therapeutic processes that, at low concentrations, exerts key physiological functions in various models of tissue inflammation and injury. CO is physiol

SUBMITTER: Gomperts E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5723421 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature