Haemoglobin is a key component of red blood cells, and transports oxygen across the body. However, a team led by Dr Feng Zhang and Dr Quiang Sun has discovered haemoglobin bodies (‘hedies’) in cartilage chondrocytes. They also saw that hedies are essential for chondrocyte survival, and that they store and release oxygen as they do in the bloodstream. This is of medical interest as many bone deformities arise from cell death of chondrocytes.
this makes me wonder if some sort of transfusion therapy could help bone disease or maybe help in osteoporosis.