fetal hemoglobin

noun

: a hemoglobin variant that predominates in the blood of a newborn and persists in increased proportions in some forms of anemia (such as thalassemia)

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The process is invasive and involves removing premature cells from the bone marrow and modifying them — by using CRISPR-Cas9 in the lab — to eventually produce fetal hemoglobin. —Katie Hunt, CNN, 9 Mar. 2023

Usually, by about age six months, this leads to complete replacement of fetal hemoglobin with adult hemoglobin, but often in beta thalassemia that replacement is delayed until 3 to 5 years of age. —David Warmflash, Discover Magazine, 10 June 2016

There are cases in which fetal hemoglobin production continues into adulthood. —David Warmflash, Discover Magazine, 10 June 2016

One copy, called fetal hemoglobin, is typically active only in fetuses, shutting down within a few months after birth. —New York Times, 27 June 2022

For reasons that are still not fully understood, the medication ramps up production of fetal hemoglobin—the alpha-gamma version of the protein that’s present right after birth. —Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2022

In both cases, the therapy does not shut off a target gene but instead delivers a gene that boosts production of healthy fetal hemoglobin—a gene normally turned off shortly after birth. —Jim Daley, Scientific American, 18 Oct. 2021

For the sickle-cell patient, the fetal hemoglobin accounted for half her total a year after the procedure. —John Timmer, Ars Technica, 9 Dec. 2020

One of the ideas that has been considered for treating these anemias is to reactivate the fetal hemoglobin gene. —John Timmer, Ars Technica, 9 Dec. 2020

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Word History

First Known Use

1950, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

fetal hemoglobin

noun

: hemoglobin that consists of two alpha chains and two gamma chains and that predominates in the blood of a newborn and persists in increased proportions in some forms of anemia (as thalassemia)

called also hemoglobin F