AlRajeh Lolwa, Zaher Amr, Alghamdi Amal, Alsheikh Rasha, AlSultan Osama
Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Family and Community Medicine Department, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
J Blood Med. 2022 Feb 16;13:61-67. doi: 10.2147/JBM.S342321. eCollection 2022.
Iron deficiency plays an important role in our body's immunity. Several studies have shown that it is frequently associated with infections.
This study aimed to discover the effect of iron deficiency on immunity by demonstrating changes occurring in lymphocyte subsets among patients with an established diagnosis of iron deficiency.
A total of 64 iron-deficient patients and 19 healthy controls were included. Complete blood counts, serum iron, ferritin, and total iron-binding capacity were assessed. Lymphocyte subsets were evaluated by flow cytometry.
Among iron-deficient patients, the anemic ones (Hb ≤11 g/dL) showed significantly lower absolute lymphocyte counts (=0.013), lower relative and absolute NK-cell counts (=0.025 and =0.003, respectively), higher relative T-cell and CD4-cell counts (p=0.026 and p=0.002, respectively). B cells and CD8 T cells were not affected by any iron-deficiency indicators. Iron-deficient anemia patients showed a three- to fourfold increase in risk of having recurrent infections.
Iron deficiency has an obvious effect on lymphocyte subsets. Changes in lymphocyte subsets started mainly in response to decreased hemoglobin, rather than decreased ferritin and/or iron. Synchronously decreased hemoglobin and increased total iron-binding capacity led to absolute decreases in total lymphocytes, mainly NK cells, and relative increases in T cells, mainly the helper ones. Monitoring changes in lymphocyte subsets may be helpful in identifying patients at risk of recurrent infections.
缺铁在人体免疫中起重要作用。多项研究表明，缺铁常与感染相关。
本研究旨在通过展示缺铁确诊患者淋巴细胞亚群的变化，来发现缺铁对免疫的影响。
共纳入64例缺铁患者和19例健康对照。评估全血细胞计数、血清铁、铁蛋白和总铁结合力。通过流式细胞术评估淋巴细胞亚群。
在缺铁患者中，贫血患者（血红蛋白≤11 g/dL）的绝对淋巴细胞计数显著降低（=0.013），相对和绝对自然杀伤细胞计数降低（分别为=0.025和=0.003），相对T细胞和CD4细胞计数升高（分别为p=0.026和p=0.002）。B细胞和CD8 T细胞不受任何缺铁指标的影响。缺铁性贫血患者反复感染的风险增加三到四倍。
缺铁对淋巴细胞亚群有明显影响。淋巴细胞亚群的变化主要是对血红蛋白降低的反应，而非铁蛋白和/或铁降低的反应。血红蛋白同步降低和总铁结合力升高导致总淋巴细胞绝对减少，主要是自然杀伤细胞，T细胞相对增加，主要是辅助性T细胞。监测淋巴细胞亚群的变化可能有助于识别有反复感染风险的患者。
