Erythrocyte enzyme activities in cord blood of extremely low-birth-weight infants
✍ Scribed by Miyazono, Yayoi; Hirono, Akira; Miyamoto, Yasuyuki; Miwa, Shiro
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 43 KB
- Volume
- 62
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0361-8609
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✦ Synopsis
To investigate the features of erythrocyte metabolism in extremely immature infants, we assayed 21 enzyme activities and glutathione level in cord erythrocytes from 28 extremely low-birth-weight infants (ELBWI; defined as birth weight <1,000 g). The results were compared with those from normal adults and non-neonatal reticulocyte-rich controls. Statistical analysis revealed that activities of six enzymes (glucosephosphate isomerase, phosphoglycerate kinase, monophosphoglycerate mutase, enolase, glucose-6phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), and glutathione reductase) were significantly higher, and those of eight other enzymes (phosphofructokinase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD), glutathione peroxidase, adenylate kinase, adenosine deaminase, acetylcholinesterase, NADH methemoglobin reductase, and catalase) were lower in ELBWI taking their marked reticulocytosis into consideration. The 6PGD/G6PD ratio, which is consistently unchanged under various physiological and pathological conditions, was markedly reduced in ELBWI. Our results support the previous reports that neonatal erythrocytes have a unique metabolic pattern which is different from that of adult erythrocytes, and also suggest that the 6PGD/G6PD ratio might be an index for the developmental immaturity of fetal erythrocytes. This is the first report describing the pattern of erythrocyte enzyme activities in ELBWI. Am.