This issue of “Postępy Nauk Medycznych” (“Progress in Medicin”) has been prepared by the Department of Immunohaematology in Medical Centre of Postgraduate Education and cooperating with us authors from the Clinical Department of Pediatrics and Department of Pediatrics in our Medical Centre, the Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion and Child Health Centre. It is devoted to problems of immunohaematology, which develop strongly in our department. They are leading themes of the research works, scientific own projects of doctoral students and teaching activities undertaken within the prescribed five different training courses.

In the review publications the new team of the Department presents the base of our study. First it concern the use of flow cytometry for the immunological evaluation of red blood cells. We introduced study of feto-maternal haemorrhage in cooperation with the Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the study of changes in surface markers associated with the destruction of erythrocytes (“The use of flow cytometry in the assessment red blood cells”).

Immunohematology development began with the discovery of ABO blood group system. Now we know the 30 group systems, and hundreds of antigens. Further fascinating exploration of red blood cell antigens with the application of new laboratory techniques are important for understanding the structure and function of the erythrocyte membrane (“New blood group systems”). For a detailed assessment of changes within the cell membrane and their role in storage and transfusion of red blood cell concentrates, proteomic studies were undertaken in collaboration with the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics in Polish Academy of Science, using our own procedures for isolation and purification of erythrocyte proteins and the assumption that future results may be used to assess the safety and effectiveness of transfusion (“Why study proteome of red blood cells stored in blood banks”).

Another review publication is devoted to the mechanisms of hemolysis in congenital hemoglobinopathies and thalassemias that may be of interest to immunohematologists because they have to differentiate immunological and non-immunological haemolytic anaemias (“Hemoglobinopathies and thalasemias – genetic basis and molecular diagnosis”). The study began and could fill the gap that exists in the diagnosis of these diseases, which affect not only patients in remote areas of the world, but also the Polish patients.

Review papers from the Department of Immunohaematology are enriched by the publication from both the Department and Clinic of Pediatrics on hepcidin – the regulatory peptide influencing iron available for erythropoesis, responsible for anemia in inflamation (“The role of hepcidin in inflammation”).

The paper of the role of white blood cells and the use of flow cytometry in the diagnosis of neutropenia was prepared in The Child Health Centre (“The use of flow cytometry in the diagnosis of neutropenia”).

At the same time we publish four original papers. Two present the results of our study feto-maternal haemorrhage in diagnosis and prevention of haemolytic disease of fetus and newborn (“Comparison of two quantitative methods of microscopic feto-maternal haemorrhage”, “Introduction of maternal and foetal morphological parameters of blood for calculation of the postpartum anti-RhD immunoglobulin doses”). The other two works were performed at the Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion. One concerns the assessment of posttransplant chimerism and its relevance in predicting graft versus host disease (“Early chimerism analysis using real-time PCR method as predictor of graft-versus-host-disease following allogeneic haematopoetic stem cell transplatation”). The second publication presents the results of the evaluation of expression of certain lymphocyte differentiation markers and their application in predicting chronic lymphocytic B cells leukemia (“Expression of CD79b, CD25 and CD100 molecules on B cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia – B-CLL”).