Iron metabolism in neuromyelitis optica patients

J Neurol Sci. 2014 Dec 15;347(1-2):214-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2014.09.051. Epub 2014 Oct 7.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there was any relationship between iron metabolism and clinical features of NMO patients.

Methods: We measured serum iron, ferritin, and transferrin levels in 25 patients with NMO and 25 controls.

Results: The patients with NMO had significantly decreased serum iron and increased serum ferritin (P=0.001 and 0.002, respectively), both of which were in normal ranges. The serum iron level of NMO patients was not correlated with disease duration, relapse number, or magnetic resonance imaging lesions. After multivariate linear regression analysis, the serum iron level was correlated with age (P=0.003) but not EDSS score.

Conclusions: The iron metabolism might reflect the chronic oxidative injury in NMO patients. It is still unclear whether iron metabolism is implicated in the pathogenesis of NMO.

Keywords: clinical feature; ferritin; iron; neuromyelitis optica; oxidative injury; transferrin.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Disease Progression
  • Female
  • Ferritins / blood*
  • Humans
  • Iron / blood*
  • Linear Models
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuromyelitis Optica / blood*
  • Neuromyelitis Optica / pathology*
  • Transferrin / analysis

Substances

  • Transferrin
  • Ferritins
  • Iron