Sickle Cell Disease : A Red Blood Cell Essay

Sickle Cell Anemia is a disease that affects how oxygen is carried throughout the body by blood. Specifically, sickle cell anemia is characterized by a change in the shape of red blood cells from a smooth donut shape to a crescent or sickled shape. The sickled cells are very long and stiff, so many times

Sickle Cell Disease is an illness that affects people all across the globe. This paper will give a description of the sickness through the discussion of the causes, symptoms, and possible cures. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a "group of inherited red blood cell disorders."(1) These disorders can have various afflictions, such as pain, damage and a low blood count--Sickle Cell Anemia.

Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disorder that mostly affects people of African ancestry, but also occurs in other ethnic groups, including people who are of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent. More than 70,000 Americans have sickle cell anemia. And about 2 million Americans - and one in 12 African Americans - have sickle cell trait (this means they carry one gene for the disease, but do not have the disease itself).

Sickle cell crisis is an acute form of sickle cell disease where pain and sickling are extensive (Byar, 2013). SCD is a genetic disease that predominantly affects black people of African decent (Gersten, 2016). Abnormal hemoglobin chains are the main issue with SCD (Byar, 2013). Normal hemoglobin chains are comprised of 99% hemoglobin A (HbA) however, in SCD an abnormal form of the gene, hemoglobin S (HbS) is present in approximately 40% of total hemoglobin (Byar, 2013). In order for a person to be born with SCD, both parents must carry the abnormal gene, HbS (Byar, 2013). HbS is extremely sensitive to the changes in oxygen amount of the RBC and when exposed to decreased oxygen the HbS cause the RBC to distort and become sickle-shaped,

Sickle Cell anemia is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, or a collection of recessive genetic disorders characterized by a hemoglobin variant called Hb S. Normal red blood cells are round like doughnuts, and they move through small blood tubes in the body to deliver oxygen. Sickle red blood cells become hard, sticky and shaped like sickles used to cut wheat. When these hard and pointed red cells go through the small blood tube, they clog the flow and break apart. This can cause pain, damage and a low blood count, or anemia. There is a substance in the red cell called hemoglobin that carries oxygen inside the cell. One little change in this substance causes the hemoglobin to form long hard rods in the red cell when it gives

Sickle-cell Anemia is a genetic disorder that causes sever pain in the lower back, legs, arms, abdomen, and chest. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body. The body uses oxygen to make energy. Inside the red blood cell is a protein called hemoglobin, which hooks on to the oxygen. People with sickle-cell anemia have abnormal hemoglobin known as hemoglobin S. Hemoglobin S changes the blood cells into the shape of a sickle. These abnormal sickle cells stick to the blood vessel walls causing blockages. These blockages do not allow blood to flow. This is what causes the pain. People get sickle cell disease when a parent has a mutated hemoglobin gene. Their child has a chance of inheriting the sickle-cell trait or getting sickle-cell Anemia.

Discussions in regards to race can be fraught with extreme opinions, to examine this subject in a more dispassionate light it is helpful to first define the terms. Race is distinctly different from ethnicity or culture, but is often combined in both writing and thought. From a biological perspective, the description of race in human populations is meaningless, but examined from a cultural basis it can make an enormous difference to a population’s wellbeing, or survival, based solely on their difference in morphology.

The term sickle refers to the fact that the red blood cells take on a sickle cell shape, instead of their normal biconcave shape (1). The cells can switch between the sickle shape and their normal biconcave shape (2). Sickled cells lose their pliability making it hard for the red blood cells to move through the smaller blood vessels (1). In their abnormal state they become more likely to adhere to the endothelium of the smaller vessels, causing clots to form and the possibility of stroke (2).

Sickle cell anemia is a severe condition in which there aren’t enough healthy, round red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen throughout your body. It is a form of anemia in which a mutated form of hemoglobin--a red protein responsible for transporting oxygen in the blood of vertebrates--distorts the red blood cells into a crescent shape. This causes low oxygen levels. Normal red blood cells are flexible and round allowing for easy movement throughout your blood vessels. In sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells are rigid and sticky and are shaped like a crescent moon--or a sickle. The effect is the red blood cells get caught in small vessels and block blood from reaching different parts of the body. This can cause pain and tissue damage.

Sickle cell disease is a chronic condition that a person can inherit from their parents in which it effects the globular structure of the patients red blood cells. A more sickle shaped structure, which can alter a person’s blood flow, replaces the more common globular structure. This impairment in blood flow can lead to blood clots, severe debilitating pain and damage to vital organs such as the liver, kidney and spleen. This disease currently affects over 90,000 people in the United States, with the majority of them being African American and

As to this day there is really no cure for sickle cell disease. Red blood cells take oxygen from the air we breathe into our lungs to all parts of the body. Oxygen is carried in red blood cells by a substance called hemoglobin(Hemoglobin –

Sickle Cell Anemia is a hereditary disease that changes the smallest and most important components of the body. A gene causes the bone marrow in the body to make sickled shapes, when this happens; it causes the red blood cell to die faster. This is what causes Hemolytic Anemia. Older children and adults with sickle cell disease may experience a few complications, or have a pattern of ongoing problems that shorten their lives. The most common and serious complications of sickle cell disease are anemia, pain, fatigue, and organ failure. Today there are many alternatives and opportunities that a sickle cell patient may consider. One outlined in this paper is the Hydroxyurea method.

Sickle-cell disease majorly affects the hemoglobin that is present in our blood. The job of hemoglobin is to help transport oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the cells throughout our body. Hemoglobin is present specifically in our red blood cells. Each red blood cell contains two hundred and eighty million hemoglobin molecules. Red blood cells normal shape is a biconcave shape because of the lack of many organelles and a nucleus. The shape is so important to a red blood cells functioning that if it is not shaped normally it has major consequences. The shape helps them to fit through capillaries easier and also allows for an increased surface area which results in easier gas exchange. Sickle-cell disease is a genetic disease that causes issues in the oxygen/carbon dioxide carrying hemoglobin molecules that are present in our red blood cells.

In a person that suffers from sickle cell disease, the red blood cells take on a crescent shape as they move through the body and lose oxygen. These sickled cells get stuck together in the small blood vessels and cause clots that can end up damaging organs. When

Sickle Cell Anemia is a disease that affects how oxygen is carried throughout the body by blood. Specifically, sickle cell anemia is characterized by a change in the shape of red blood cells from a smooth donut shape to a crescent or sickled shape, almost the same shape as a crescent moon. The sickled cells are very long and stiff, so sometimes