Antioxidant effect of vitamin E in the treatment of nutritional iron deficiency anemia

Oxidant status and antioxidants play important roles in anemias. The present study was conducted to investigate the oxidant-antioxidant status in iron deficiency anemia (IDA), and to evaluate the antioxidant effect of vitamin E in IDA treatment. Ten patients with IDA aged nine months were given only iron treatment, whereas another 10 patients were administered both iron and vitamin E. The complete blood count, plasma malonyldialdehyde (MDA) level, erythrocyte superoxide dismutase level, and the serum vitamin E level, both before and within the treatment phases were examined. The reticulocyte count at the first week of treatment was found lower in the vitamin E-treated group. The mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was found higher in the vitamin E-treated group at the end of therapy. The malonyldialdehyde levels of the group treated with vitamin E were found lower during treatment. These results suggest that iron administration in IDA treatment may stimulate lipid peroxidation, and that vitamin E supplied with iron may reduce the MDA production. The hematological indications of the findings of our study are that the reticulocyte response develops earlier and the microcytosis recovery occurs more rapidly in the vitamin E-administered group in comparison with the group treated with iron only.