Serum Soluble Transferrin Receptor Concentrations Are Elevated in Congolese Children with Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Variants, but Not Sickle Cell Variants or α-Thalassemia

Associations of inherited blood disorders and hemoglobin, ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor concentrations

Abstract

Anemia is common in Congolese children, and inherited blood disorders may be a contributing cause. The presence of sickle cell variants, X-linked glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and α-thalassemia, has been previously reported. G6PD A– deficiency is characterized by the co-inheritance of G6PD 376 and 202 variants and is common in sub-Saharan Africa.

The authors aimed to measure the associations between inherited blood disorders and hemoglobin, ferritin, and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) concentrations in Congolese children. Venous blood was collected from 744 children aged 6–59 months from 2 provinces. They measured biomarkers of nutritional and inflammation status and malaria. Pyrosequencing was used to detect sickle cell variants. Polymerase chain reaction was used to detect G6PD variants and α-thalassemia deletions.

This work is an output of the HarvestPlus Programme. The Department for International Development is one of the main donors for HarvestPlus.

Citation

Barker, Mikaela K., Amanda M. Henderson, Karimah Naguib, Suzanne M. Veracauteren, Angela M. Devlin, Arianne Y. Albert, Esto Bahizire, Pierrot L. Tugirimana, Pierre Z. Akilimali, Erick Boy, Tim J. Green, and Crystal D. Karakochuk. 2017. Serum soluble transferrin receptor concentrations are elevated in Congolese children with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase variants, but not sickle cell variants or α-thalassemia. The Journal of Nutrition147 (9): 1785-1794. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.117.252635.

Serum Soluble Transferrin Receptor Concentrations Are Elevated in Congolese Children with Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Variants, but Not Sickle Cell Variants or α-Thalassemia

Published 10 August 2017