The objective of this study was to investigate the therapeutic
biological mechanism of
Yisui Shengxue Granule (YSSXG), a complex Chinese medicine, on the
hemolysis and
anemia of erythrocytes from patient with
thalassemia disease. Sixteen patients with
thalassemia (8 cases of α-
thalassemia and 8 cases of β-
thalassemia) disease were collected and treated with YSSXG for 3 months. The improvements of blood parameter demonstrated that YSSXG had a positive clinical effect on patients with
thalassemia disease. For patients with α-
thalassemia disease, RT-PCR showed that YSSXG upregulated the relative
mRNA expression level of α-
globin to β-
globin and downregulated DNMT1, DNMT3a, and DNMT3b
mRNA compared with pretreatment. Western blotting showed that YSSXG downregulated the expression of DNMT1 and DNMT3a. For patients with β-
thalassemia disease, the relative expression level of (A) γ-
globin to α-
globin had an increasing trend and the level of BCL11A
mRNA expression obviously increased. For all patients, RT-PCR showed that YSSXG upregulated
mRNA expression of SPTA1 and SPTB. Activities of SOD and GSH-Px significantly increased and MDA obviously reduced on erythrocyte and blood serum after YSSXG treatment. TEM showed that YSSXG decreased the content of inclusion bodies. Activities of Na(+)K(+)-ATPtase and T-ATPtase of erythrocyte increased significantly after YSSXG treatment. This study provides the basis for mechanisms of YSSXG on
thalassemia suffering with
hemolysis and
anemia of erythrocytes from patient.