Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 4, 2026

Quantitating Iron Transport Across the Mouse Placenta In Vivo Using Nonradioactive Iron Isotopes
Published on: May 10, 2022
It Is Not Always Alcohol Abuse--A Transferrin Variant Impairing the CDT Test
Andrea Zühlsdorf1, Michael Said2, Christoph Seger3
1Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik und Poliklinik für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin-Allgemeine Pädiatrie, Albert Schweitzer Campus 1, Gebäude A 1, 48149 Münster, Germany.
Aims:
Elevated Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) levels are used as a biomarker in order to screen for chronic alcohol abuse. Transferrin (Tf) variants can impair methods to measure elevated CDT levels such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). We present a Tf variant affecting the second glycosylation site of Tf and the complications it causes in diagnosing alcoholism.
Methods:
A blood sample from a patient with suspected alcohol abuse was analyzed with HPLC, isoelectric focusing, electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS), immunoprecipitation and SDS-Page. Sanger sequencing of Tf was performed to detect Tf mutations.
Results:
HPLC, SDS-Page and IEF showed a distinctly increased disialo-Tf fraction while the tetrasialo-Tf fraction was decreased, ESI-TOF-MS confirmed these results. Sanger sequencing revealed the Tf mutation c.1889 A>C, deleting a Tf glycosylations site and thereby causing elevated disialo-Tf levels.
Conclusions:
Transferrin mutations can severely impair the diagnostics of chronic alcohol abuse by causing false positive results. This has to be considered when CDT screening is used to detect alcoholism.
More Related Videos
07:24A Precision Medicine Tool for Measurement and Monitoring of Hemoglobin S in Sickle Cell Disease Patients Receiving Transfusion Therapy
11:13In Vitro Permeation of FITC-loaded Ferritins Across a Rat Blood-brain Barrier: a Model to Study the Delivery of Nanoformulated Molecules
Published on: August 22, 2016
Related Concept Videos
The Early Endosome: Endocytosis of Transferrin
Translation
Translation is the process of synthesizing proteins from the genetic information carried by messenger RNA (mRNA). Following transcription, it constitutes the final step in the expression of genes. This process is carried out by ribosomes, complexes of protein and specialized RNA molecules. Ribosomes, transfer RNA (tRNA), and other proteins produce a chain of amino acids—the polypeptide—as the end product of translation.
Translation Produces the Building Blocks of...
Translation
Translation Produces the Building Blocks of Life
Proteins are...
Effect of Hepatic Disease on Pharmacokinetics: Pathophysiologic Assessment and Liver Function Test