Starting in October 1966, 19 dogs have been subjected to massive parenteral iron loading using intravenous iron-dextran and intramuscular iron-sorbitol. Although 13 animals died, in many cases the deaths were attributable to fighting. The large doses of iron employed (up to 5.8 g/kg) were well tolerated by the surviving animals, and after 35 to 47 months five of the six survivors have developed...

Iron studies in chronic liver diseases (CLDs) have a long history. Currently we can mention certainties, uncertainties, and hopes related to this topic. It is certain that iron metabolism problems and hepatic siderosis are frequent in CLDs and they get more frequent as CLD progresses, but true iron overload is rare. There are conflicting literature data on the mechanism of siderosis, the role o...

Normal hepatic iron uptake is presumed to involve active transport of iron from serum transferrin after a transferrin-hepatocyte-membrane interaction. However, the possibility remains that transferrin itself enters the cell by endocytosis, with subsequent iron transfer within the lysosome, in a process akin to that occurring in erythropoietic tissue (Hemniaplardh & Morgan, 1977). Iron is subseq...

Iron overload is frequently observed in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2), but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesize that hepcidin may be directly regulated by insulin and play an important role in iron overload in DM2. We therefore examined the hepatic iron content, serum iron parameters, intestinal iron absorption, and liver hepcidin expression in rats treated with streptozoto...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Juvenile hemochromatosis (JH) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by severe early-onset iron overload, caused by mutations in hemojuvelin (HJV), hepcidin (HAMP), or a combination of genes regulating iron metabolism. Here we describe two JH cases associated with simple heterozygosity for novel HJV mutations and unknown genetic factors. Case 1: A 12 year-old mal...

Intestinal uptake (U) and transport (T) of 50Fe from a 1-mug oral dose was studied in the mouse. U increased to a similar degree in both pregnant and iron-deficient animals. The increase in T was greater in pregnant than in iron-deficient mice. In iron-loaded pregnant mice, U increased to levels found in pregnant animals, whereas T increased, but by a lesser amount. Termination of pregnancy by ...

PCBs are a family of persistent environmental toxicants with a wide spectrum of toxic features, such as immunotoxicity, hepatoxicity, endocrine disruption effects, and oncogenic effects. To date, little has been done to investigate the potential influence of PCB exposure on iron metabolism. Deregulated iron would lead to either iron deficiency or iron excess, coupled with various diseases such ...

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by the macrophage-tropic pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is a highly prevalent infectious disease. Since an immune correlate of protection or effective vaccine have yet to be found, continued research into host-pathogen interactions is important. Previous literature reports links between host iron status and disease outcome for many infections, including TB....

Iron-copper interactions were described decades ago; however, molecular mechanisms linking the two essential minerals remain largely undefined. Investigations in humans and other mammals noted that copper levels increase in the intestinal mucosa, liver and blood during iron deficiency, tissues all important for iron homeostasis. The current study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that dieta...