Antibody-Mediated Aplastic Anemia and Diffuse Fasciitis

Abstract

IT has been suggested that aplastic anemia may be due to either a deficiency of hematopoietic stem cells or an adverse interaction between stem cells and factors in the marrow microenvironment.¹ The possibility that autoreactive antibodies are involved in the pathogenesis of aplastic anemia has been unsuccessfully explored.² In contrast, antibody-mediated inhibition of erythropoiesis may be responsible for the development of acquired pure red-cell aplasia.³ Recently, the role of humoral factors in aplastic anemia has undergone renewed scrutiny.^{4 5 6 7} In the patient with severe aplastic anemia described below, bone-marrow aplasia was associated temporally with the development of diffuse fasciitis (a recently . . .