Autoimmune Diseases: Hemolytic Anemia
Abstract
Anemia is a term that defines a condition in which a person’s blood lacks a stable amount of red blood cells or hemoglobin. This condition can cause a person to experience fatigue, and an improper amount of oxygen will be carried to the body and its organs. Hemolytic anemia is an autoimmune disease similar to anemia, which wages a battle against the body’s own red blood cells. Hemo is derived from the Greek “Haema” meaning blood, and lytic from the Greek “loosing”. Thus, even though a person with hemolytic anemia has actually experienced no physical blood loss, people infected with the disease see a decline in the amount of red blood cells in their body. To this day, there is no evidence on how or why a person’s immune system is attacking the body’s red blood cells. There are many theories, and experiments in this field are generating a vast pool of information to determine an eventual mechanism and hopefully a cure. My goal is to propose a hypothesis for the mechanism of this disease, and then hopefully be able to test it. Determination of a mechanism could hopefully lead to a treatment for this autoimmune disease, and if successful I will attain a solution.
Citation
Lechuga Magana, Jesus Fernando (2014). Autoimmune Diseases: Hemolytic Anemia. Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /167830.