Lipophilic antioxidants and iron status in ESRD patients on hemodialysis

Cardiovascular disease remains the major cause of mortality in hemodialysis patients. Abnormal oxidative stress and impaired antioxidant defense may c ontribute to accelerated atherogenesis associated with uremia. As oxidative modification of lipids appears to be a prerequisite for the development of atherosclerotic lesions, lipophilic antioxidants may be protective. The ai m of this study was to determine the plasma levels of lipophilic antioxidan ts in 82 hemodialysis patients and 30 controls and to investigate the influ ence of body iron status on the levels of lipophilic antioxidants. The pati ents were categorized into 3 groups according to their serum ferritin level s. We found that the plasma levels of lycophene, delta -tocopherol, gamma - tocopherol and retinol of hemodialysis patients were lower than those of co ntrols. On the other hand, both absolute and lipid-normalized plasma lycoph ene levels were significantly reduced in those patients in the groups with higher ferritin levels as compared to those with lower ferritin levels. In addition, our study showed that the lipid-normalized plasma levels of beta -carotene and alpha -carotene of hemodialysis patients with higher ferritin levels were lower than those of the patients with lower levels. These data suggest that the plasma levels of lipophilic antioxidants are altered in e ndstage renal disease on hemodialysis and may be considered as markers of o xidative stress in these patients, Most importantly, elevated serum ferriti n levels may affect the levels of these lipophilic antioxidants. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.