Significance of the target cell (leptocyte) in peripheral blood smears of the Gold Coast African

Abstract

Examination of blood smears indicates that target cells are present in the peripheral blood of about 4% of the natives of the Gold Coast and seem to have no necessary hereditary relationship to those having sickle-cell anemia. The fact that these cells are usually commoner among children than among adults may indicate some irregularity in the functioning of the reticulo-endothelial system rather than to an inherited tendency to sickle-cell anaemia. Such irregularities may well be corrected in most adults, and the trait disappears except in those suffering from anemias. Thus target cells may be found to persist because of anemia, but not to have been caused by or necessarily accompany such anemia.