Is there a gender difference in red blood cell thiopurine methyltransferase activity in healthy children?
✍ Scribed by Klemetsdal, Bjørg ;Flægstad, Trond ;Aarbakke, Jarle
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1995
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 437 KB
- Volume
- 25
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0098-1532
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
We have examined red blood cell (RBC) thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity in a healthy population sample of Norwegian children, age 1–10 years. Boys had mean RBC TPMT activity of 11.1 ± 2.0 U (n = 87) vs. 10.6 ± 2.2 U (n = 71) in girls, the difference was not significant (P = 0.3). Age was negatively correlated to RBC TPMT activity (r~S~ = −0.2, P = 0.01). As boys with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) tolerate more 6‐mercaptopurine (6‐MP) than girls and have a higher risk of relapse, we have searched for pharmacokinetic causes of these gender differences. The gender difference in 6‐MP tolerance and clinical outcome in children with ALL cannot be explained by the minor and nonsignificant higher RBC TPMT activity in boys compared to girls. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.