Acquired aplastic anemia aplastic anemia: (ay-PLASS-tik uh-NEE_mee-uh) A rare and serious condition in which the bone marrow fails to make enough blood cells - red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. The term aplastic is a Greek word meaning not to form. Anemia is a condition that happens when red blood cell count is low. Most… (AA), the prototypical bone marrow bone marrow: The soft, spongy tissue inside most bones. Blood cells are formed in the bone marrow. (BM) failure syndrome, is caused by immune-mediated destruction of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs). An immune mechanism was inferred decades ago from the recovery of hematopoiesis hematopoiesis: (hi-mat-uh-poy-EE-suss) The process of making blood cells in the bone marrow. in patients who failed to engraft after stem cell transplantation, when renewal of autologous blood-cell production was credited to the conditioning regimen. The responsiveness of AA to immunosuppressive therapy immunosuppressive therapy: Immunosuppressive drug therapy lowers your body's immune response. This prevents your immune system from attacking your bone marrow, allowing bone marrow stem cells to grow, which raises blood counts. For older patients with acquired aplastic anemia, immunosuppressive drug therapy is the… (IST) in most patients is the best evidence of an underlying immune pathophysiology pathophysiology: Functional changes in the bodies that are associated with or result from disease or injury. : the majority of patients show hematologic improvement after transient T-cell depletion by ATGs. The key goal of this project is to identify autoantigens presented by HLA HLA: See human leukocyte antigen. molecules in AA patients using induced pluripotent stem cells stem cells: Cells in the body that develop into other cells. There are two main sources of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells come from human embryos and are used in medical research. Adult stem cells in the body repair and maintain the organ or tissue in which they are found. Blood-forming (hemapoietic) stem… (iPSCs) technology. The identification of autoantigens in AA could lead to the development of novel therapies that suppress immune responses specific to these autoantigens, as opposed to non-specific immunosuppressive therapies like ATG and cyclosporine cyclosporine: Cyclosporine is used along with antithymocyte globulin (ATG), another immunosuppressant, for treating aplastic anemia and some other forms of bone marrow failure. . Moreover, this research has the potential to make significant contributions to the broader fields of medicine and immunology.