Intracellular iron overload leading to DNA damage of lymphocytes and immune dysfunction in thalassemia major patients.

Therefore, intracellular iron overload caused DNA fragmentation, which may ultimately hamper lymphocyte function, and this may contribute to immune dysfunction and increased susceptibility to infections in thalassemia patients as indicated by the good correlation (R2  = 0.91) between lymphocyte DNA damage and rate of infection found in this study.