Enhanced labile plasma iron in hematopoietic stem cell transplanted patients promotes Aspergillus outgrowth

Blood Adv. 2019 Jun 11;3(11):1695-1700. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2019000043.

Verena Petzer¹, Martin Wermke², Piotr Tymoszuk¹, Dominik Wolf^{3

4}, Markus Seifert^{1

5}, Rıdvan Ovaçin¹, Sylvia Berger¹, Dorothea Orth-Höller⁶, Lorin Loacker⁷, Günter Weiss^{1

5}, Hubertus Haas⁸, Uwe Platzbecker^{2

9}, Igor Theurl¹

¹ Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
² Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany.
³ Department of Internal Medicine V, Hematology and Oncology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
⁴ Medical Clinic 3, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
⁵ Christian Doppler Laboratory for Iron Metabolism and Anemia Research.
⁶ Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology.
⁷ Central Institute for Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics, and.
⁸ Division of Molecular Biology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria; and.
⁹ Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik I, Hämatologie und Zelltherapie, Universitatsklinikum Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.

Abstract

Serum-enhanced labile plasma iron in patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT is critical for Aspergillus fumigatus growth in vitro.
Transferrin iron in serum is inaccessible for A fumigatus, and uptake of iron in the form of eLPI involves fungal siderophores.