All you need to know about sickle-cell disease

A new study sheds light on how sickle-cell disease occurs when deformed red blood cells clump together, blocking tiny blood vessels and causing severe pain and swelling in the affected body parts.

Sickle-cell disease, also known as sickle-cell anemia, is a group of disorders that lead to deformation and break down of red blood cells.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) analysed blood from patients with sickle-cell disease and revealed the process of cell clumping.

Known as vaso-occlusive pain crises, the findings represent a step towards being able to predict when such a crisis might occur.

"These painful crises are very much unpredictable. In a sense, we understand why they happen, but we don't have a good way to predict them yet," said Ming Dao, a principal researcher and one of the senior authors of the study.

The researchers found that these painful events are most likely to be produced by immature red blood cells, called reticulocytes, which are more prone to stick to blood vessel walls Read More