Levels of growth differentiation factor-15 are high and correlate with clinical severity in transfusion-independent patients with β thalassemia intermedia

Growth differentiation factor-15 in children and adolescents with thalassemia intermedia: Relation to subclinical atherosclerosis and pulmonary vasculopathy

“…Tanno et al [12] have reported that in patients with β-thalassemia, serum GDF-15 levels are elevated, which results in the suppression of the iron regulatory protein hepcidin [12,29]. Moreover, Musallam et al [13] assessed GDF-15 in 55 transfusion-dependent TI patients with a mean age of 30.7 ± 15 years (range, 8-67 years) and levels were much higher than those encountered in our study, most likely because of the young age of the studied patients since GDF-15 has been found to be correlated with age.…”

“…GDF-15 levels were found to be significantly elevated in patients with β-TM [12] and TI [13] as well as sickle cell disease (SCD) [14]. The aim of the study was to determine serum levels of GDF-15 in children and adolescents with TI in relation to patients' characteristics, iron overload, hemolysis and therapy and to assess its value as a potential marker for cardiovascular complications and subclinical atherosclerosis.…”

-Thalassemia Intermedia: A Clinical Perspective

“…It is evident that without treatment, TI patients experience more frequent morbidity and poorer health-related quality of life (Taher et al 2010a;Musallam et al 2011cMusallam et al , 2011d. Currently, man-agement of patients with TI is almost entirely based on clinical expertise and evidence derived from observational studies.…”

Growth Differentiation Factor 15 expression and regulation during erythroid differentiation in non-transfusion dependent thalassemia

“…Although the exact biological functions of GDF15 are still poorly understood, it has been shown to be involved in regulating inflammatory and apoptotic pathways and its expression is upregulated in many different pathological conditions, including inflammation, cancer, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease and renal disease [3]. Furthermore, GDF15 concentrations are strongly elevated in disorders hallmarked by increased ineffective erythropoiesis, such as β thalassemia syndromes (up to 100,000 pg/mL), congenital dyserythropoietic anemias (10,000 pg/mL) and myelodysplastic syndromes (5000 pg/mL) [4].…”