Journal of Blood Disorders & Transfusion

Abstract

Immunologic Abnormalities in ?-Thalassemia

Ch D Asadov

Infectious complications are the important part of the clinical spectrum of thalassemia, being one of the main reasons of mortality rate in this disease. Data about the increased susceptibility to infections in thalassemia aroused interest in the study of the immune status in this disease. As a result of the researches considerable infringements of specific (all stages of phagocytosis), nonspecific immunity (the maintenance and functional activity of lymphocyte subsets) and humoral immunity (an increase of the immunoglobulins and a decrease of the activity of complement components) have been revealed. Immunological abnormalities in thalassemia are caused by either the illness, or therapy methods. The basis of the pathogenesis of the immunodeficiency in thalassemia is iron overload and allogenic stimulation caused by multiple blood transfusions. There are not numerous data about efficiency of the immunocorrection therapies for thalassmia patients.