The story of how a worm turned... into a bringer of medical miracles
For centuries, the only use humans found for the lugworm—dark pink, slimy and inedible—was on the end of a fish hook.
Jul 31, 2017
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For centuries, the only use humans found for the lugworm—dark pink, slimy and inedible—was on the end of a fish hook.
Jul 31, 2017
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577
Hemoglobin is a protein found in the blood and a key oxygen transporter in the body. High hemoglobin levels have generally been considered desirable for a person's health. However, the latest research evidence appears to ...
Nov 5, 2021
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Some malaria parasites in sub-Saharan Africa have genetic variants that allow them to infect those with sickle hemoglobin, which is normally thought to give strong protection against the disease. The parasites may have adapted ...
Dec 10, 2021
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(Medical Xpress) -- Though emphasizing that quitting is the best remedy to combat health problems for smokers, Cornell researchers have found a way to make cigarettes less toxic.
Jan 3, 2012
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Heart surgery requires more blood transfusions than almost any other surgical procedure.
Nov 13, 2017
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Babies born to women with anemia during pregnancy have an increased risk of childhood anemia, according to a study carried out in rural India.
Dec 3, 2021
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A leak of a protein called haemoglobin from damaged red blood cells may be associated with brain shrinkage in multiple sclerosis.
Dec 13, 2016
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UNSW Australia researchers have shown that changing just a single letter of the DNA of human red blood cells in the laboratory increases their production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobin - a world-first advance that could lead ...
May 14, 2015
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ETH Zurich molecular biologist Mandy Boontanrart is researching gene therapies that could be used to cure two of the most common types of inherited anemia. She has now developed a promising approach for so-called beta-hemoglobinopathies. ...
Aug 2, 2023
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Scientists have developed a rapid method that can be used to simultaneously screen patients for a range of genetic and acquired clinical conditions from a single dried blood spot.
Nov 16, 2011
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Hemoglobin (English pronunciation: /hiːməˈɡloʊbɪn/; also rendered as haemoglobin and abbreviated Hb or Hgb) is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae, as well as the tissues of some invertebrates. Hemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the respiratory organs (lungs or gills) to the rest of the body (i.e., the tissues) where it releases the oxygen to burn nutrients to provide energy to power the functions of the organism, and collects the resultant carbon dioxide to bring it back to the respiratory organs to be dispensed from the organism.
In mammals, the protein makes up about 97% of the red blood cells' dry content, and around 35% of the total content (including water).[citation needed] Hemoglobin has an oxygen binding capacity of 1.34 ml O2 per gram of hemoglobin, which increases the total blood oxygen capacity seventy-fold compared to dissolved oxygen in blood. The mammalian hemoglobin molecule can bind (carry) up to four oxygen molecules.
Hemoglobin is involved in the transport of other gases: it carries some of the body's respiratory carbon dioxide (about 10% of the total) as carbaminohemoglobin, in which CO2 is bound to the globin protein. The molecule also carries the important regulatory molecule nitric oxide bound to a globin protein thiol group, releasing it at the same time as oxygen.
Hemoglobin is also found outside red blood cells and their progenitor lines. Other cells that contain hemoglobin include the A9 dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, macrophages, alveolar cells, and mesangial cells in the kidney. In these tissues, hemoglobin has a non-oxygen-carrying function as an antioxidant and a regulator of iron metabolism.
Hemoglobin and hemoglobin-like molecules are also found in many invertebrates, fungi, and plants. In these organisms, hemoglobins may carry oxygen, or they may act to transport and regulate other things such as carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulfide. A variant of the molecule, called leghemoglobin, is used to scavenge oxygen, to keep it from poisoning anaerobic systems, such as nitrogen-fixing nodules of leguminous plants.
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