Oxidant stress in children with iron deficiency anemia

ABSTRACT

The susceptibility to oxidant stress was evaluated in forty-one children with iron deficiency anemia [IDA] as well as ten healthy children as a control group. The levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances [TBARS] as a measure of lipid peroxides, the antioxidant enzymes catalase and glutathione peroxidase [GPX] in red blood cells [RBCs] and superoxide dismutase [SOD] in both RBCs and plasma together with the non-enzymatic antioxidants glutathione in both RBCs and plasma, vitamin C and beta-carotene in plasma were measured in all patients and controls. The study revealed significant decrease in the levels of catalase [7.6 +/- 2.3], GPX [14.4 +/- 2.0], glutathione in both RBCs and plasma [435.4 +/- 56.5, 368.8 +/- 123.7], vitamin C [0.24 +/- 0.15] and beta-carotene [78.1 +/- 25.2] in children with IDA compared with the healthy control group [11.34 +/- 3.0, 19.9 +/- 2.7, 636.4 +/- 54.3, 640 +/- 94.9, 1.4 +/- 0.3, 118.5 +/- 22.9, respectively]. Consistent with the reduced levels of enzymatic and non- enzymatic antioxidants is the significant increased levels of the lipid peroxidation marker [TBARS]in both plasma and RBCs in children with IDA compared with the control group. The study revealed increased vulnerability to oxidant stress in children with IDA