VCAM1 and thalassemia: Elevated levels of adhesion proteins such as vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 in thalassemia patients (Oztürk et al., 2001; Moshtaghi-Kashanian et al., 2006; Butthep et al., 2015; El-Rasheidy et al., 2016; Gülhan et al., 2016) suggest that endothelial injury or activation may be a feature of thalassemia (Cappellini et al., 2010; Cappellini et al., 2012).