A new animal model developed at Weill Cornell may help investigators develop therapies for anemia of inflammation, a common condition that affects many critically ill patients in intensive care, as well as those with chronic ailments like Crohn's disease and osteoarthritis.
The mouse model reproduces features of human acute and chronic anemia of inflammation, in which a major inflammatory response causes the blood to slow production of red blood cells and creates a lack of oxygen in the body's organs. In doing so, it provides investigators with more knowledge about how anemia of inflammation develops, as well as a good way to test new therapies, said senior author Dr. Stefano Rivella, an associate professor of genetic medicine in the Department of Pediatrics Hematology-Oncology. Dr. Rivella published his findings in the Dec. 19 issue of Blood.
"Our goal is really to understand, what are the components that affect the production of red cells?" Dr. Rivella said. "The model is great because you can induce anemia and test compounds. At the same time, the model is giving us a lot of information about the direction we need to take to move forward."
The study's investigators, who were led by Dr. Sara Gardenghi, an instructor of cell and developmental biology, used a common food-borne bacteria, Brucella abortus, to induce anemia of inflammation in mice. They found that two key compounds, hepcidin and interleukin 6, play important, but distinct, roles in the production of red blood cells.
"We identified two molecules and showed that the absence of these molecules can somehow make this inflammatory process less profound, less dramatic," Dr. Rivella said.
These two compounds could be targets for new drugs, he said.