Objective: To evaluate the effects of Yisui Shengxue Granules on expressions of alpha-hemoglobin stabilizing protein (AHSP) and erythroid transcription factor GATA-1 mRNAs in bone marrow of patients with beta-thalassemia, and to explore its possible molecular mechanism.
Methods: Twelve patients with beta-thalassemia intermedia were treated with Yisui Shengxue Granules for three months. The blood indexes including hemoglobin (Hb), RBC, fetal hemoglobin (HbF) and reticulated corpuscles (Ret) were examined before and after treatment. Total RNA was extracted from bone marrow karyocyte in 8 patients selected from these 12 patients before and after treatment, and the expression levels of the AHSP and GATA-1 mRNAs were measured by real-time PCR.
Results: Yisui Shengxue Granules could not only obviously improve the clinical symptoms of patients with beta-thalassemia intermedia, but also obviously increased the contents of Hb, RBC, HbF and Ret (P<0.05, or P<0.01). The expression levels of AHSP and GATA-1 mRNAs also significantly increased after treatment as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05, or P<0.01).
Conclusion: The results revealed that one of the possible molecular mechanism of the effects caused by Yisui Shengxue Granules is that it can up-regulate the expression levels of AHSP and erythroid transcription factor GATA-1 mRNAs, enhance the protein synthesis of AHSP which can bind the relative excess free alpha-globin, prevent the formation of alpha -globin-cytotoxic precipitates in red blood cells and decrease the hemolysis.