ANTIBODY-MEDIATED APLASTIC-ANEMIA AND DIFFUSE FASCIITIS

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. © 1979, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.