TRANSCRIPTIONAL RESPONSES IN CHILDREN WITH SICKLE CELL

To date, little is known about lung disease pathogenesis in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a significant cause of morbidity and premature.mortality in SCD, but preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic options are limited. Further, ACS and acute vasoccclusive pain crises (VOC) can have overlapping features such as chest pain, which causes a diagnostic dilemma for clinicians.  We aimed to explore changes in gene expression profiles in patients with SCD at baseline and during hospitalization for VOC or ACS in order to better understand ACS disease pathogenesis. Whole blood RNA-Seq was performed using the Illumina HiSeq4000 platform for 26 patients who had matched baseline and hospitalization blood samples for ACS or VOC.