Sickled Cell Disease and the Immune System!!!

This past Thursday, 2/18/10, I had to present a class project for my Immunology class. The project topic had to be something about immunology and with the presentation we had to make a model to represent our topic. My topic was Sickled Cell Anemia/ Sickled Cell Disease,(SCD), and for my model I baked a red velvet cake and designed two cells out of it, one being a normal Red Blood Cell, (RBC), and the other a sickled shape RBC. While developing this project I knew this disease had something to do with immunology but I wasn't sure how so I decided to do a little investigative research to receive information allowing me to link SCD to immunology! In this blog you will be informed of my findings so that you will also know why such a serious disease as SCD has an impact on our immune system!







Sickled Cell Disease


A genetic trait that confers resistance to maleria disease but causes a reduction in the number and effeciency of red blood cells by reducing the oxygen-binding affinity or hemoglobin.





What does SCD do?


SCD causes many infections within young children and continues to threaten them with infection as they get older. Those who have SCD are more likely to suffer from pneumonia, gallbladder infpammation, bone infections and, urinary tract infections. It also causes disease of the kidneys, liver and, lungs. Organ transplants are not uncommon among SCD patients because due to the inability to transport oxygen in the blood properly organ failure is common. One major organ that is often effected is the spleen.








How does SCD relate to the Immune System?
Google images

The spleen is a major organ of the immune system that filters the blood by cleaning out invading bacteria with its lymphatic cells such as B cells which bind to the bacteria and macrophages that ingest and kill the bacteria. Not all bacteria present such an easy process of elimination. Some bacteria are encapsulated and require opsonization which is a process of coting the bacteria with important immune factors within the blood to increase the ability of the encapsulated bacteria to be phagocytosed. Because this opsonizing porcess uses immune cells within the bloodstream and the bloodstream in SCD does not work properly, opsonization is decreased and many bacterial infections invade the immune system of those with SCD. With SCD the blood does not flow well within the tiny blood vessels of the spleen and can become clogged with these sickled shape cells, cutting off circulation and killing the spleen. The death of the spleen takes away the ability for opsonization which occurs with even flowing red blood cells and the immune cells within the blood.

SOURCES
-All images from google.com
- Madigan M T. Brock Biology of Microorganisms. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Pearson Printice Hall; 2006. 991 p.
- Kindt T J. Kuby Immunology. New York (NY): Sara Tenney W.H. Freeman and Company; 2007. 574 p.
-http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,5112,00.html