In β-thal patients, in spite of normal reticulocyte counts, the IRF was higher and LFRs lower than in controls (Table 1), showing a premature reticulocyte release, as reported by others [6,7,8,14,15,36,43]; this was associated with increased GPX1 and SOD1 mRNA levels (although not as high as in SCD and HS) (Figure 1B,D). This evidence concerns the gene SOD1 and Schnyder corneal dystrophy.