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Electron microscopic and other evidence have provided support for the hypothesis that the sickling phenomenon is due to the intracellular formation of long slender crystals of reduced sickle hemoglobin. The rapid growth of these crystals causing tenting of the cell membrane is responsible for the bizarre distortion of the erythrocytes and presumably for the disease itself.
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Chandler A. Stetson (1966) studied this question.
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