Role in Disease
Transferrin imbalance can have serious health effects for those with low or high serum transferrin levels. A patient with an increased serum transferrin level often suffers from iron deficiency anemia. A patient with decreased plasma transferrin can suffer from iron overload diseases and protein malnutrition. An absence of transferrin results from a rare genetic disorder known as atransferrinemia; a condition characterized by anemia and hemosiderosis in the heart and liver that leads to many complications, including heart failure. Most recently, transferrin and its receptor have been shown to diminish tumour cells by using the receptor to attract antibodies.
Read more about this topic: Transferrin
Famous quotes containing the words role in, role and/or disease:
“Always and everywhere children take an active role in the construction and acquisition of learning and understanding. To learn is a satisfying experience, but also, as the psychologist Nelson Goodman tells us, to understand is to experience desire, drama, and conquest.”
—Carolyn Edwards (20th century)
“When things turn out pretty much as expected, parents give little thought to how much they have influenced the outcome. When things don’t turn out as expected, parents give a great deal of thought to the role they play.”
—Arlene Harder (20th century)
“In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.”
—Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)