The Antioxidant Effects of Capparis Ovata and Deferasirox in Patients with Thalassemia Major

Introduction: Iron overload and auto-oxidation of unpaired globin chains is the main cause of oxidative stress in thalassemia. The high levels of MDA in iron overloaded thalassemic patients is the best sample of oxidative stres. Generally decreased iron burden was associated with decreased oxidant damage. In vitro studies were shown that iron chelators such as deferoxamine and deferipron neutrolyse intraselluler free iron and inhibits oxidation. We aimed to show the antioxidant effects of capparis ovatta and deferasirox in thalassemic patients.

Material-Method: A total number of 40 thalassemia major patient aged between 7–30 years, who has been taken regular transfusion (15 cc/kg/month to maintain Hb >10 gr/dl) and chelation therapy (30 mg/kg/day ICL-670) are involved. They were separated into two groups as control and study group randomly. Both study and control group were followed by transfusion and chelation therapy. In study In addition study group have been taken capparis marmelade at the breakfast with a dose of a dessert-spoon (12.5 gr) younger than 10 years and a soup-spoon (25 gr) older than ten years for 6 months. Hematological and biochemical parameters, ferritin at every month and oxidative-antioxidant status (MDA, CAT, Gpx, SOD) were measured at the beginning and at the end of the study.

Results: Serum ferritin and MDA levels declined significiantly in both groups (for ferritin; control group p= 0.00; study group p=0.00) during the study but a much more decrease occured at MDA levels in the cappari given group (p=0.02). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups at the initial and last SOD CAT, GPX, SOD levels. Further more in the study group a significant decrease in liver function tests was occured (AST p= 0.05, ALT p= 0.01).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that combination of capparis with deferasirox may be usefull for decreasing the effect of oxidative damage.