Innocuous Nature of the Sickling (Pseudosickling) Phenomenon in Deer

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Abstract
SUMMARY: 1. Sickle‐shaped deer cells have a normal life span because they are non‐fragile, and they do not obstruct blood vessels because they are small and pliable. Thus, the presence of sickle‐shaped cells in deer is innocuous. These findings have relevance to the sickling phenomenon in humans in that they emphasize the importance of the physical properties of sickled cells, exclusive of shape, in the pathogenesis of sickle cell anaemia.2. The data in this study in conjunction with previous observations in the literature indicate that there are five basic differences between the sickling phenomenon in deer and humans, (a) The haemoglobin of deer differs from human sickle haemoglobin in composition and in electrophoretic behaviour, (b) The formation of sickle‐shaped deer cells can be induced by oxygenation (which blows off carbon dioxide and induces a pH change), whereas human cells sickle when de‐oxygenated, (c) The internal structure of deer sickle‐shaped cells is probably that of a gel instead of the tactoid formation found in human cells, (d) Sickle‐shaped cells of deer are non‐fragile and pliable whereas human sickle cells are fragile and rigid, (e) The presence of sickle‐shaped cells in humans produces a disease state, whereas their presence in deer is innocuous. Since the shape of the cells is the only property that is similar in deer and human sickling, it is more appropriate to designate the phenomenon in deer as ‘pseudosickling’.