Shaw J, et al. – The cause and effects of intracellular iron overload in lymphocytes of thalassemia major patients, were investigated. Intracellular iron overload caused DNA fragmentation, which appeared to hamper lymphocyte function. It seemed to 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 the present study.