Blood Cells

Sharon Johnson is not a physician or scientific researcher. She has never been trained as a nurse. Her most recent prior occupation was as office manager in a dental practice. Yet colleagues say she's a bundle of compassion, a quick study and a genius at communicating with people of all backgrounds — all qualities that have made her a key player in iHOMES, a Johns Hopkins-based network of health care providers who are dedicated to mobilizing every possible resource in the fight against sickle cell disease.

Good Morning America's Robin Roberts returned to the anchor desk this morning, five months after taking temporary leave for a bone marrow transplant. Her welcome back included a video message from President Obama. "I keep pinching myself and I realize this is real," Roberts said about her return. Roberts had to get the transplant after doctors diagnosed her with the rare condition myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS. MDS is a group of disorders that cause the bone marrow to produce an inadequate number of helathy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Good Morning America's Robin Roberts returned to the anchor desk this morning, five months after taking temporary leave for a bone marrow transplant. Her welcome back included a video message from President Obama. "I keep pinching myself and I realize this is real," Roberts said about her return. Roberts had to get the transplant after doctors diagnosed her with the rare condition myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS. MDS is a group of disorders that cause the bone marrow to produce an inadequate number of helathy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Sharon Johnson is not a physician or scientific researcher. She has never been trained as a nurse. Her most recent prior occupation was as office manager in a dental practice. Yet colleagues say she's a bundle of compassion, a quick study and a genius at communicating with people of all backgrounds — all qualities that have made her a key player in iHOMES, a Johns Hopkins-based network of health care providers who are dedicated to mobilizing every possible resource in the fight against sickle cell disease.

Good Morning America host Robin Roberts told viewers in an emotional announcement this morning that she has the rare disorder myelodysplastic syndromes. She will soon get a bone marrow transplant from her older sister. It's probably fair to say that many people probably haven't heard of the disease that also goes by MDS. MDS is actually a group of disorders that cause the bone marrow to produce an inadequate number of healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, according to the Mayo Clinic.

To sloth, gluttony and genes, add germs as reasons people may get fat. In a study that supports a controversial theory that viruses may play a role in human obesity, University of Wisconsin researchers found that chickens infected with a particular type of human virus got fat. Scientists infected four groups of chickens with four strains of a human adenovirus. The group infected with the strain Ad-37 got much fatter than uninfected chickens or those infected with other strains of the virus, according to a study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Dr. Vincent Freda, 75, who helped develop a vaccine against a disease that afflicted and killed thousands of babies each year, died of respiratory failure May 7 in New York. Dr. Freda was instrumental in the development of Rhogam, a vaccine that enables mothers to deliver Rh-negative blood to their babies and prevent hemolytic disease. The Rh-factor is a protein found on red blood cells. Rh-positive children born to Rh-negative mothers run the risk of having hemolytic disease, in which the mother's body makes antibodies that attack her fetus's blood.

Genetic Therapy Inc. says the National Institutes of Health has approved trials for treating Gaucher's disease, a metabolic disorder, by genetically altering a patient's blood.The Gaithersburg-based biotechnology company received approval to remove blood from within or around a patient's bone marrow, genetically alter it, and return it to the patient in a healthy state. The treatment would use a delivery system designed by Genetic Therapy called a retroviral vector.The company closed yesterday unchanged at $20.25 a share.

A new technique offers a tantalizing hope of greatly increasing the number of leukemia patients who can have potentially lifesaving bone marrow transplants.In a paper published yesterday in the journal Blood, researchers in Israel and Italy report that it might be possible to use bone marrow donors who would ordinarily be considered incompatible with leukemia patients by treating the marrow in a particular way before it is transplanted.At least two groups of researchers in the United States are finding the same thing.

Consider skipping the aspirinMost people take a couple of aspirin when they get a cold. But a study suggests they'd be better off if they didn't. Nor will it help to take Tylenol or ibuprofen. Australian doctors asked 56 college students with colds to take either aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprofen or a placebo up to eight times a day for a week. Those taking aspirin and Tylenol actually ended up with stuffier noses and a lower immune response than those on the placebo. Ibuprofen proved to be no better or worse than the placebo.

The underlying medical condition that contributed to the death of writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron and is forcing ABC news anchor Robin Roberts to get a bone marrow transplant is a rare and complicated disease that scientists are still trying to figure out. Both women were afflicted with myelodysplastic syndrome, a group of disorders caused when the body produces damaged blood cells. Abnormal cells can eventually outnumber good cells, leaving people with low blood cell counts and needing transfusions and other treatments.

Good Morning America host Robin Roberts told viewers in an emotional announcement this morning that she has the rare disorder myelodysplastic syndromes. She will soon get a bone marrow transplant from her older sister. It's probably fair to say that many people probably haven't heard of the disease that also goes by MDS. MDS is actually a group of disorders that cause the bone marrow to produce an inadequate number of healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Hayden G. "Bud" Braine, an internationally known figure and pioneer in the field of blood cell transfusion and in the treatment of patients suffering from leukemia, died Saturday from complications of dementia at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Monkton resident was 67. "Bud was an outstanding oncologist and established at Hopkins one of the first hemapheresis unit programs in the country. He was a great guy, compassionate and will be missed," said Dr. Richard J. "Rick" Jones, professor and director of bone marrow transplants at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

To sloth, gluttony and genes, add germs as reasons people may get fat. In a study that supports a controversial theory that viruses may play a role in human obesity, University of Wisconsin researchers found that chickens infected with a particular type of human virus got fat. Scientists infected four groups of chickens with four strains of a human adenovirus. The group infected with the strain Ad-37 got much fatter than uninfected chickens or those infected with other strains of the virus, according to a study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Federal authorities have temporarily suspended three gene therapy experiments after news that in a similar French study, a third child has developed leukemia and one of the three has died. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is meeting in suburban Washington today in an effort to determine whether the French cases are an isolated incident or a precursor of problems that will affect all gene therapy attempts. Experts don't expect an immediate consensus from the advisory panel, but there appears to be a growing feeling among researchers that the problem is of limited scope and reflects the combination of the virus and gene used by the French.

In the beginning there were frogs' eggs. And then they blew up. That explosive moment during a 1991 experiment was all Dr. Peter Agre and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins medical school needed to prove that a blood cell protein they had come across was the long-sought key to the movement of water in and out of all human cells. The experiment took barely five minutes. The first time Agre's staff activated that protein in the frogs' eggs, the eggs immediately began to swell. In minutes, they burst.

Several weeks ago, after an attack of severe pain in my right big toe, my doctor told me that I have gout. I am otherwise completely healthy and would like to know what can be done to prevent another attack.Gout is a generalized disorder that is due to elevated levels of uric acid in the blood. The most prominent manifestations of gout are painful episodes of acute arthritis, often first involving the great toe, due to the deposition of uric acid crystals in the joints. These crystals trigger the entry of white blood cells into the joint, where they engulf the crystals and release substances that cause the arthritis attack.

ATLANTA -- Medical history unfolded at Egleston Children's Hospital on Friday at noon with the world's first umbilical cord blood transplant for sickle cell anemia.As a syringe of dark red blood plunged into the intravenous line of Keone Penn, relatives and friends bowed their heads in prayer and talked of miracles, cures and gratitude.They also gently told the center of attention to wake up."Hey, Keone. God's working it out just like we said. Wake up and see your miracle happening," said Beverly Kennedy, a close friend of Leslie Penn, Keone's mother.

Dr. Vincent Freda, 75, who helped develop a vaccine against a disease that afflicted and killed thousands of babies each year, died of respiratory failure May 7 in New York. Dr. Freda was instrumental in the development of Rhogam, a vaccine that enables mothers to deliver Rh-negative blood to their babies and prevent hemolytic disease. The Rh-factor is a protein found on red blood cells. Rh-positive children born to Rh-negative mothers run the risk of having hemolytic disease, in which the mother's body makes antibodies that attack her fetus's blood.