Congenital disorders of glycosylation. Part I. Defects of protein N-glycosylation.

Glycosylation is the most common chemical process of protein modification and occurs in every living cell. Disturbances of this process may be either congenital or acquired. Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) are a rapidly growing disease family, with about 50 disorders reported since its first clinical description in 1980. Most of the human diseases have been discovered recently. CDG result from defects in the synthesis of the N- and O-glycans moiety of glycoproteins, and in the attachment to the polypeptide chain of proteins. These defects have been found in the activation, presentation, and transport of sugar precursors, in the enzymes responsible for glycosylation, and in proteins that control the traffic of component. There are two main types of protein glycosylation: N-glycosylation and O-glycosylation. Most diseases are due to defects in the N-glycosylation pathway. For the sake of convenience, CDG were divided into 2 types, type I and II. CDG can affect nearly all organs and systems. The considerable variability of clinical features makes it difficult to recognize patients with CDG. Diagnosis can be made on the basis of abnormal glycosylation display. In this paper, an overview of CDG with a new nomenclature limited to the group of protein N-glycosylation disorders, clinical phenotype and diagnostic approach, have been presented. The location, reasons for defects, and the number of cases have been also described. This publication aims to draw attention to the possibility of occurrence of CDG in each multisystem disorder with an unknown origin.

The distribution of serum folate concentration and red blood cell indices in alcoholics.

Chronic alcohol consumption leads to malnutrition and to the deficiency of many vitamins. One of the most important is folate deficiency. Folate deficiency disrupts the process of hematopoiesis, which can be evaluated by the changes of red cell indices. The aim of this study was to determine the hematological disturbances by the measurement of red blood cell indices in a Polish population of chronic alcoholics according to folate status. We studied 80 consecutive chronic alcoholic men and 30 healthy controls. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the folate concentration. The serum folate and vitamin B12 concentration and the blood count were determined. We have shown that the serum folate concentration was decreased in 40% of alcoholics, but there was no folate deficiency and the level of vitamin B12 was normal. There was no correlation between folate, vitamin B12 and hematological indices. We have observed that most hematological parameters (Hb, RBCs, and Hct) in alcoholics were decreased and only two of them (MCV and MCHC) were increased in comparison with the controls. We observed no significant correlation between the RBCs indices and the weekly alcohol intake, but the correlation between RBCs, Hb, Hct and the duration of dependence have been shown. We concluded that, there is no folate deficiency in the Polish alcoholic population but the abusers with low folate levels may already have some RBCs indices affected. It means that the Polish alcoholic population consumes a sufficient amount of vitamins, which prevents the occurrence of hematological disturbances.