**Acknowledgements**

The authors work is generously supported by the Hemoglobinopathy Translational Research Core (HTRC) support (JG) and Dr. Madaio, and the Augusta University Health Medical Center, Department of Medicine (JG), NIH grant HL101902 (ADV). We also thank Dr. Anita Kovacs-Kasa for her work in pulmonary microvascular cell immunocytochemistry figure and the Augusta University Health Vascular Biology Center Electron Microscope Imaging Center, Dr. Brendan Marshall and Libby Perry.
