Effects of transferrin genetic phenotypes on total iron-binding capacity

Serum transferrin level and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) were studied in a group of 297 healthy adult male subjects having HbAA and G6PDB+ phenotypes by standard chemical and immunoelectrophoretic techniques to examine the influence of different transferrin variants on these parameters. TIBC (67.1 +/- 13.4 mumol/l) and transferrin concentrations (27.0 +/- 3.95 mumol/l) for the whole group were found to be within reported normal values. Serum transferrin concentrations of the subjects having different electrophoretic variants and TfC subtypes of transferrin were not significantly different from each other. There was no significant difference of TIBC in relation to different electrophoretic variants of Tf. However, the TIBC of the subjects of the 1-1 subtype of TfC (70.4 +/- 13.6 mumol/l) was significantly higher than that of the 2-1 subtype (65.0 +/- 12.8 mumol/l; p less than 0.05) as well as that of the 2-2 subtype (60.4 +/- 11.4 mumol/l; p less than 0.01).