Enzymatic and Vitamins Antioxidant Status in β-Thalassemia Major

Abstract

The present study on β–Thalassemia major patients as regard to oxidative
hypothesis to explain the influence of the free radicals and other reactive
oxygen species (ROS) that accelerate the damage of cells and cause to
complication of these patients. The measurement of antioxidant enzymes,
Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (Cat) and glutathione reductase (GR)
explanted a significantly increased for all age groups of patients compared
with healthy controls. A significantly decrease of Vitamins E and A, which
determined for the first time for thalassemia patients by using a Gas
chromatography technique, our results proved that the patients suffer from
deficiency on the levels of vitamins E and A as well as vitamin C, our
study detect a significant decrease in Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) concentration
at all age groups of patients as compared to healthy controls of similar age
group.
Study of vitamin E / vitamin C ratio ( the means ± SD are 0.7 ± 0.3, 0.84
± 0.21, 0.88 ± 0.23, 0.85 ± 0.46 ) for age groups of patients compared with
healthy controls ( 1.5 ± 0.3 and 0.99 ± 0.4). Also the correlation between
SOD and Cat activity were study which can use as an index for the iron
overload and oxidative stress in patients with β– Thalassemia major.