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The favorable storability of bThal+ RBC
RBC from the bThal+ group (Figure 5B). Cysteine levels were higher and cysteate levels lower in the bThal+ group, especially past storage day 28 and at the end of storage (Figure 5B). Significantly higher levels of sphin- gosine 1-phosphate (S1P) – a marker of systemic hypox- emia27 - were observed in RBC from the bThal+ group on day 0 and throughout storage (Figure 5C).
Like in fresh RBC, changes were observed in arginine metabolism between the two groups as a result of storage duration – with RBC from the bThal+ group being charac-
terized by significantly lower arginine and creatine and higher asymmetric dimethyl-arginine and acetyl-spermi- dine levels throughout storage (Figure 6A). Of all the path- ways assessed in this study, the most notable between- group changes were unexpectedly found in vitamin B6 metabolism (Figure 6B) and in the hexosamine pathway (Figure 6C). bThal+ RBC were characterized by lower pyri- doxate and pyridoxal and higher pyridoxamine levels throughout storage. On the other hand, all intermediates of the hexosamine pathway (uridine monophosphate -
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Figure 3. Metabolomics analyses of fresh and stored red blood cells from control and beta thalassemia minor donors. (A) Fresh blood analysis of eligible blood donors (n=13 for controls and n=12 for beta thalassemia minor [bthal+] donors). (B) Principal component and discriminant analysis in fresh blood. (C) Heat map of top 25 metabolites differing between bthal+ and control fresh red blood cells (RBC). (D) Metabolomics analysis was performed in RBC stored in leukoreduced CPD/SAGM units (n=15 per group). (E) Principal component and discriminant analysis in stored RBC. (F) Heat map of variation in RBC metabolites throughout stor- age. CPD/SAGM: citrate-phosphate-dextrose/saline-adenine-glucose-mannitol.
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