Attenuation of Anemia by Relmα in LPS-Induced Inflammatory Response

In this paper, we propose to evaluate the effect of resistin-like molecule alpha ($Relm{\alpha}$) on the progression of anemia of inflammation. Anemia of inflammation is a common feature of inflammatory disorders, including chronic kidney disease, infections, and rheumatoid arthritis. $Relm{\alpha}$ is highly up-regulated in various inflammatory states, especially those involving asthma, intestinal inflammation, and parasitic diseases, and regulates the pathogenesis of those diseases. However, the role of $Relm{\alpha}$ in anemia of inflammation is unknown. To explore the roles of $Relm{\alpha}$ in anemia of inflammation in vivo, we generated mouse model of the disease by injecting 0.25 mg/kg lipopolysaccharides (LPS) intraperitoneally into $Relm{\alpha}-deficient$ and wild-type (WT) mice daily for 10 days. Research data was expressed as differences between LPS-treated $Relm{\alpha}-deficient$ and WT mice by a two-tailed non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test using GraphPad Instat program. The results of the study are as follows: LPS-treated $Relm{\alpha}-deficient$ mice had significantly (p<0.05) lower hemoglobin contents, hematocrit levels and red blood cell indices including mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin than WT controls. This decrease was accompanied by significant (p<0.05) increase in total white blood cell and monocyte counts in the blood. However, there was no significant difference in mRNA levels of hepatic hepcidin and renal erythropoietin between the two animal groups. Taken together, these results indicates that $Relm{\alpha}$ deficiency exacerbates the anemia by increasing inflammation, suggesting therapeutic value of $Relm{\alpha}$ in the treatment of anemia of inflammation.