Drepanocytes

Abstract

Drepanocytosis (or sickle cell anemia) is a hereditary disease which is largely confined to black people. In the red cells of patients who suffer from this condition, normal hemoglobin (A) is replaced by an abnormal hemog lobi n (S). When the oxygen tension decreases (for instance at high altitude), the hemoglobin molecules polymerize and form tiny, long rods inside the cell. These small rods of hemoglobin cluster into sheaf-like bundles which stretch the membrane and deform the discocyte. Such cells appear sickle-shaped.