Erythroid differentiation ability of butyric acid analogues: identification of basal chemical structures of new inducers of foetal haemoglobin.

Several investigations have demonstrated a mild clinical status in patients with β-globin disorders and congenital high persistence of foetal haemoglobin. This can be mimicked by a pharmacological increase of foetal γ-globin genes expression and foetal haemoglobin production. Our goal was to apply a multistep assay including few screening methods (benzidine staining, RT-PCR and HPLC analyses) and erythroid cellular model systems (the K562 cell line and erythroid precursors collected from peripheral blood) to select erythroid differentiation agents with foetal haemoglobin inducing potential.