1985 Volume 26 Issue 9 Pages 1486-1490
A 2-year-old boy was admitted to Hirosaki University Hospital with complaint of pallor in July 1984. The diagnosis of transient erythroblastopenia was made from his severe normocytic, normochromic anemia, reticulocytopenia and erythroblastopenia of bone marrow. Spontaneous recovery was seen one month after initial diagnosis.
In order to determine the mechanism of anemia, we used an in vitro technique for erythroid progenitor cells (CFU-E). Numbers of colonies from normal marrow CFU-E were significantly reduced by the addition of the patient's serum on admission. There was no suppression of colony growth when the patient's serum after recovery was added to the culture.
These findings suggest that transient severe anemia is due to immune suppression of erythropoiesis.
