title: Association between neutrophil geletinase-associated lipocalin and iron deficiency anemia in children on chronic dialysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common and associated with higher risk of death. Neutrophil geletinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a small 25 kDa glycoprotein, a member of lipocalin superfamily that released at the response of cellular stress from different cells. In addition, NGAL was studied as an iron regulatory glycoprotein and regulator of iron related gene. The aim of the current study was to determine any association between serum NGAL and body iron status markers in children on chronic dialysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  This correlation study was carried out between May 2012 and May 2013 and evaluated all dialysis patients less than 19 years in pediatric dialysis centers in Isfahan that didn't have exclusion criteria. They were 40 children, including 23 persons on hemodialysis (HD) and 17 persons dialyzed by peritoneal dialysis (PD). Furthermore, we selected 40 children as healthy controls. We examined the relationship between plasma NGAL levels and indices of anemia such as ferritin, transferrin saturation (TSAT) and serum iron (SI) in dialysis children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum NGAL level in children on chronic dialysis (group including both PD and HD patients) was significantly higher than healthy controls (P = 0.008). Furthermore, in this group Serum NGAL level had inverse correlation with TSAT (P = 0.04, r = -0.22), SI (P = 0.04, r = -0.2), white blood cells (P = 0.045, r = -0.26) and serum ferritin (P = 0.006, r = -0.3). In addition, HD patients had higher serum NGAL level than PD patients (P = 0.048).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High serum NGAL level in low TSAT group demonstrated that NGAL probably has an important role in IDA in children on chronic dialysis; therefore, it can be a new marker for diagnosis of IDA in CKD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yazdani
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics Nephrology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Merrikhi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra Naderi
authors.initials: ZN
authors.lastname: Beni
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Azar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baradaran
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Neda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Soleimani
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamided
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Musazade
keywords: Hemodialysis; iron deficiency anemia; neutrophil gelatinise-associated lipocalin; peritoneal dialysis