Authors: A Pugliese L Gennero G P Pescarmona M Beccattini E Morra G Orofino D Torre
Publish Date: 2014/02/12
Volume: 30, Issue: 2, Pages: 86-89
Abstract
Patients and Methods Given the ability of HIV to alter iron metabolism we studied the principal transferrin system and alternative citrate system iron pathways in a group of 65 HIVinfected patients symptomatic stage B1–B3 and in a group of 36 healthy seronegative individuals We determined serum citrate levels haptoglobin Hp haplotypes expression of transferrin receptor CD71 on cell lines infected with HIV1 as well as iron markers including blood iron transferrin and ferritinResults Our data showed decreased serum citrate levels in the HIVinfected patients compared to controls 929 ± 224 μM/l vs 1262 ± 292 μM/l p 001 In particular the serum citrate levels negatively correlated with HIV1 RNA copy number mean 253 ± 188 × 105/ml rs = 070 p 001 and positively correlated with CD4+ Tlymphocyte count mean 241 ± 168/ml rs = 064 p 005 Accordingly blood iron transferrin and red cell concentrations were lower in HIVinfected patients compared to the controls whereas serum ferritin levels were higher in HIVinfected patients Moreover the Hp haplotype distribution showed significant differences only in the group of HIVinfected patients p = 002 χ2 testConclusion Our results show that iron metabolism is altered in patients with HIV1 infection The alternative pathway citrate system is particularly affected since when citrate levels are low both aconitase activity and HIV1 replication need iron
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