Inhibition of erythropoiesis by human parvovirus-containing serum from a patient with hereditary spherocytosis in aplastic crisis.

Aplastic phase serum from a patient with aplastic crisis of hereditary spherocytosis, which was demonstrated to contain human parvovirus, inhibited in vitro erythroid colony formation almost completely. Human parvovirus was resistant to heating for 30 min at 56°C. The suppressive effect of the serum was completely abrogated by adding convalescent phase serum from another patient with aplastic crisis of hereditary spherocytosis. Some normal sera had similar neutralizing ability. The results suggested that aplastic crisis of a patient with hereditary spherocytosis is caused by human parvovirus and that the neutralizing test could offer a tool for predicting the future occurrence of aplastic crisis in the patients with chronic hemolytic anemia.