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Background: Platelet microparticles (PMPs) have a procoagulant activity about 50-100 times greater than active platelets due to high expression of negatively charged phospholipids on their surfaces. In this study, we evaluated microparticle immunophenotyping and also plasma PMPs level in patients with Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP) in Southern Iran., Method: We had two study groups: 15 TTP patients and 15 healthy control group and PMPs from platelet concentrate (PC) at the 5 th day of storage. Microparticles were prepared in two steps, by low and high centrifugation followed by size confirmation via 'Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)' Zetasizer. Immunophenotyping of PMPs was done via flow cytometry, using a FACS Calibur flow cytometer (BD, USA). PMPs counts were obtained using Partec-cyflow and Polysciences Microbeads (1 micron in diameter). Results were analyzed using FlowJo 7.6 (Treestar, USA) and Partec FlowMax software., Results: Our results showed that the majority of microparticles in TTP patients and normal individuals were PMPs and also demonstrated that the plasma PMPs level in TTP patients was higher than the normal control group ( P -value<0.001)., Conclusion: It seems that elevated PMPs level in TTP patients could be related to thrombotic events. Nevertheless, more studies are needed to confirm these results., (© 2017 by the Association of Clinical Scientists, Inc.)

Background: Alpha hemoglobin stabilizing protein (AHSP) is a chaperone-like molecule specialized for erythroid series which binds to free α-globin chain. According to this characteristic, AHSP can be considered an important factor which reduces beta thalassemia symptoms., Materials and Methods: Reticulocytes RNA extraction and a subsequent cDNA synthesis were performed, followed by Relative qRT-PCR for AHSP, alpha, and beta globin chain genes. The beta actin gene was used as an endogenous reference as well. The relationship between AHSP gene expression, disease severity, and the β/α globin mRNA ratio was studied among different homozygote β-thalassemia patients (mild, moderate and severe) and compared with minor thalassemia and the normal population., Results: Analysis of the β-globin/α-globin mRNA ratio has shown that disease severity enhanced with a decrease in this proportion. Evaluation of the correlation between AHSP gene expression and the average of the β-globin/α-globin expression ratio indicated a significant but indirect relationship in considered groups. Our results demonstrated that the AHSP gene expression increases in accordance with augmentation of clinical symptoms., Conclusions: Although one of the main reasons for reduced clinical severity in homozygote β-thalassemia can be the high level of AHSP gene expression as a chaperon molecule, our findings indicated that AHSP gene expression decreased in a mild category as compared to that in severe and moderate groups.