Polycythemia Vera Research Paper

It is the job of the red blood cell to transport oxygen to muscles. Increased red blood cell counts benefit the athlete in a number of ways. However, due to controversial methods of execution such as: blood transfusions, consuming erythropoietin (EPO), and injecting synthetic oxygen carriers, the risks far outweigh the benefits. When transfused, a high amount of blood is present within the body, increasing stress on the heart immensely leading to stroke or a heart

Hepcidin levels increase as a protective mechanism as iron levels become higher than normal after aerobic exercise. As a result athletes should be careful to consume and retain sufficient iron to prevent their bodies to become iron deficient. Athletes spend many hours training and performing sports, as a result their bodies sweat, and undergo hemolysis of erythrocytes. This great stress situation affects their potential for using or maintaining iron levels at their normal

Athletes and the everyday, ordinary person will not have the same optimal hemoglobin level because their lifestyles are very different. Athletes normally have a below average hemoglobin level and that may be seen as a sign for anemia. The reason the hemoglobin level is lower in athletes than in the everyday person is because the plasma volume expands and the number of red blood cells increases during a workout.7 This plasma volume expansion causes the hematocrit to be lower in athletes compared to that of non-athletes. If athletes were to take Epogen, this would increase the hematocrit and the uptake of iron, and therefore the hemoglobin levels. A highly increased hematocrit will increase the blood viscosity and can put strain on the heart and can lead to cardiac overload.7 This shows that too high of a hemoglobin level and hematocrit in athletes can lead to heart failure, so the amount of Epogen taken can be dangerous. Many athletes have been found using a technique called “blood doping” to increase their athletic performance. Epogen is used to increase the amount of oxygen that is available to the body by chemically raising the production of the red blood cells and therefor raising the hemoglobin concentration in the body.8 The use of this drug this way can cause more harm than good if the hemoglobin level goes too high. Blood doping in athletes can result in death due to adverse reactions

“Some symptoms of a high or low red blood cell count can include: fatigue, joint pain, and shortness of breath”(WebMD). A normal red blood cell count is anywhere from 4.7 to 6.1 million cells per microliter for men, and anywhere from 4.2 to 5.4 million cells per microliter for women. Some causes for a high red blood cell count are: smoking, heart disease, dehydration, or a bone marrow disease. Another form of malfunction in the red blood cell is anemia. There are multiple types of anemia, such as: sickle cell anemia, iron deficiency anemia, and hemolytic anemia. Hemolytic anemia is when red blood cells are destroyed by an abnormal process in your body (WebMD). These malfunctions affect how well the red blood cell and cardiovascular system work in the human

Pancytopenia sufferers display a number of abnormalities apart from low blood cell and platelet count. These signs and symptoms are mostly internal in nature even though some are visible from the outside as well. Some of the major Pancytopenia signs and symptoms are: fatigue, infection, nose bleeding, increased menstrual bleeding, hemorrhage, Petechiae, Pallor, rapid heart beat, shortness of breath. Pancytopenia can also

In 1998, Biopure Corporation is one of the three legitimate contenders in the emerging field of “blood substitutes”. Biopure has invested $200M on the R&D on blood substitutes in the past with its primary goal being the development of a human blood substitute ( Hemopure) but Its entry into animal market (Oxyglobin) had been some

In this article in Medical News Today Ohio State University is developing technology for keeping liver cells alive and functioning normally inside bioartificial liver assist devices (BLAD). These devices allow people who are suffering from liver failure to survive while their own liver cells regenerate, or receive a liver transplant. The person's blood or plasma circulates through the device . Andre Palmer a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State developed a way to chemically modify and package hemoglobin, which is red blood cells that transports oxygen to liver cells in order for them to survive. The body's liver cells are naturally exposed to a different oxygen concentrations called oxygen gradient. Reproducing that oxygen gradient inside bioartificial liver assist device is difficult. In his experiment his solution for producing this gradient has been to create different kinds of hemoglobin .

JAK2- mutated essential thrombocythemia is different from CALR-mutated essential thrombocythemia in terms of clinical, hematologic, and biological

The other type of artificial blood is more of a blood substitute as it is derived from either outdated bovine or human red blood cells. It is known as Hemoglobin Based Oxygen Carriers (HBOC), Hemoglobin which is the oxygen carrying protein molecule found in red blood cells is extracted from the obsolete red blood cells through ultrafiltration and purification. The Hemoglobin must undergo specific processes in an attempt to prevent the Hemoglobin from disassociating from its natural four-chain configuration (Fridey 3). There is numerous methods of chemically altering the Hemoglobin to increase the molecules size so it does not dissociate and break down. The two main processes of enlarging the

Like the other forms of blood transfusions, blood doping can have serious medical consequences. Another person’s blood may contain a virus, which is unwittingly passed on during the transfusion. An athlete uses his or her own blood, can put themselves at significant health risks if the procedure is not done properly or if the blood is not handled or stored in a proper manner. In addition, unnaturally high red blood cell levels increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and pulmonary or cerebral

This condition can cause growth failure (such as short stature) and hypoglycemia, the pathologic state of lower than normal levels of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Treatment for this condition usually involves the injection of human growth hormone and is generally able to effect dramatic improvements in the patient’s life, as the body ages, the body produces less growth hormone.the benefits of human growth hormone as an ergogenic aid are not as unanimously accepted. Also connects with Blood doping, In the human body, red blood cells make up the majority of all blood cells. They are the vehicles by which oxygen is delivered to body tissue, and they also transport carbon dioxide, a cellular waste, away from the tissue. The more red blood cells a body contains, the less the body will get fatigued, since the muscle tissues are getting replenished with “fuel” oxygen at a quicker rate. It's more for athletes that need to boost their endurance in their spot like runners, swimmers, or cyclists. The benefits of greater red blood cells are scientifically proven, which encourages endurance athletes to engage in blood-doping. Which is the process of boosting their red blood cell level through artificial means. Growth hormone, like steroids, allowed him to increase his muscle mass, but unlike steroids, it also strengthened

Erythropoietin is a hormone that is produced by the kidneys in response to a decrease in the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells in circulation (2). From the kidneys, erythropoietin (EPO) enters the blood stream and enters the bone marrow where it stimulates an increase in the production of red blood cells (1, 2). This mechanism functions as a negative feedback loop since the signaling of an increase in the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood due to an increased number of red blood cells inhibits further production of EPO. The release of EPO is very sensitive to the level of oxygen-carrying capacity in the blood. The simple occurrence of red blood cells death will trigger its release to ensure normal levels are maintained (1).

Erythropoietin is produced by the kidneys and is the hormone that regulates the production of red blood cells. The kidneys don’t make enough erythropoietin, so there are fewer blood cells, which can lead to anemia.

Transfusion medicine began only 200 years ago and has been perfected in the last 50 years (Ness, & Schmidt, 2006). There are still new discoveries and new technologies being made in the field of blood transfusions. Blood transfusions today are used to treat blood loss, anemia, and other hemolytic diseases. Over 200 years ago blood was believed to have many different uses. During this time period, there was no knowledge of inter-species immunity problems, any anti-coagulant, or proper functioning equipment.

Most of the researchers compared the use of blood conserving apparatus in relation preserved H&H and decrease in transfusion requirement, and majority of them found the use of blood saving apparatus conserves H&H (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2010; Peruzzi et al.,