Is Alpha-Fetoprotein a New Biomarker for Fetal, Infant and Juvenile Anemia? A Commentary

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is well known as a biomarker for certain cancers and fetal birth defects. However, AFP has long been overlooked as an indicator for the presence of anemia in various diseases of fetal, neonatal, and juvenile individuals. A survey and meta-analysis of the biomedical literature revealed that elevated levels of serum AFP may serve as a viable biomarker of moderate to severe anemia at various stages of ontogeny. Such conditions of anemia could include bone marrow failure, pancytopenia, macrocytosis, microcytosis, and aplastic anemia. Since many congenital diseases that result in anemia are progressive and lethal, the need for a biomarker that could predict and parallel the advancing anemic state in disease would be of utmost importance to the biomedical community.