M.M.A. ATTIA*, A.M. SAYED*, FATMA A. IBRAHIM*, A.S. MOHAMMED**, M.S. EL-ALFY***

*Biochemistry Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt,
**Department of Chemistry-Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Egypt
***Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Egypt

Abstract. The present work is concerned with the study of the effects of antioxidant vitamins on the erythrocytes, hemoglobin (Hb) derivatives and the rate of alkaline denaturtion of Hb in homozygous β-thalassemic patients. The patients were treated with vitamins E, C and A for twelve months. The mean value of hemolysis of β-thalassemic children before treatment is significantly higher than that of controls, whereas, that of β-thalassemic children after treatment is significantly lower than that of β-thalassemic children before treatment. The results of multi-component spectrophotometric analysis revealed significant decreases in MetHb % and HbCO % concomitant with significant increases in HbO2 % in β-thalassemic blood after treatment with antioxidant vitamins, when compared to before treatment. The results of alkaline denaturation showed insignificant differences in the rate of this reaction between the normal Hb and beta thalassemic Hb before treatment and between anemic patients before and after treatment, respectively. The results of this method revealed values of HbF in the range (12.5–45.38%) and (9.289–33.99%) for β-thalassemic children before and after treatment with antioxidants, respectively. Finally, it seems clear that treatment of β-thalassemic patients with antioxidant vitamins reduced the hemolysis of red blood cells and hence improves the hemoglobin levels of thalassemic patients. Also, treatment with antioxidants vitamins reduced the levels of inactive Hb (HbCO and MetHb) and hence improved the active Hb (HbO2) concentrations, whereas it has no effects on the rate of alkaline denaturation of Hb.
Key words: β-thalassemia, antioxidant vitamins, erythrocytes hemolysis, hemoglobin derivatives, multi-component spectrophotometric analysis, fetal hemoglobin, alkaline denaturation of hemoglobin.

Corresponding author’s e-mail: yousatef@yahoo.com

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