Aplastic Anemia Causes

Aplastic anemia is caused by damage to the bone marrow's stem cells, slowing or shutting down the production of new blood cells, so it is a serious problem. The cause of the damage can be acquired or inherited.

What are causes of acquired aplastic anemia?
Acquired aplastic anemia refers to those cases where certain environmental factors and physical conditions seem to be associated with development of the disease. Causes of Acquired aplastic anemia with:

• Exposure to toxic chemicals, such as some used in pesticides and insecticides, may cause secondary aplastic anemia. Exposure to benzene, an ingredient in gasoline, also has been linked to secondary aplastic anemia. This type of anemia sometimes gets better on its own if you avoid repeated exposure to the chemicals that caused your initial illness.
• Exposure to drugs, such as chloramphenicol, phenylbutazone, and gold may cause aplasia of the marrow. The immune mechanism does not account for the marrow failure in idiosyncratic drug reactions. In such cases, direct toxicity may occur, perhaps due to genetically determined differences in metabolic detoxification pathways.
• Radiation and chemotherapy (treatments for cancer)
• Viral infection such as hepatitis viruses, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), parvovirus, and mycobacteria
• Pregnancy, Aplastic anemia that occurs in pregnancy may be related to an autoimmune problem — your immune system begins attacking your bone marrow during pregnancy.
• Autoimmune disorders, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. This happens when the bodys immune cells become confused and start to attack body tissues. In about three quarters of all cases this auto-immune reaction has no clear underlying cause.

What are causes of inherited aplastic anemia?
Certain inherited conditions can damage the stem cells and lead to aplastic anemia:

• Fanconi anemia
• Dyskeratosis congenita
• Cartilage-hair hypoplasia
• Pearson syndrome
• Thrombocytopenia-absent radius syndrome)
• Shwachman-Diamond syndrome
• Reticular dysgenesis
• Diamond-Blackfan anemia
• Familial aplastic anemia

In more than half of the people who have aplastic anemia, the cause of the disorder is unknown. Some research suggests that stem cell damage may occur because the body's immune system attacks its own cells by mistake.