OBJECTIVE For middle aged and elderly subjects there is a concern that increased iron intake, especially heme iron associated with consumption of red meat, leads to increased iron stores resulting in disturbed glucose homeostasis and risk for cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of heme, non-heme and iron supplementation on i...

The neisserial fbpABC locus has been proposed to act as an iron-specific ABC transporter system. To confirm this assigned function, we constructed an fbpABC mutant in Neisseria meningitidis by insertional inactivation of fbpABC with a selectable antibiotic marker. The mutant was unable to use iron supplied from human transferrin, human lactoferrin, or iron chelates. However, the use of iron fro...

Neonatal jaundice (neonatal hyperbilirubinemia) is a physiological process caused by degradation of foetal erythrocytes. In humans, it starts in the second day of life and finishes at about day 10. During this short period in the organism of neonate large amounts of bilirubin – product of heme decay are generated as an effect of haemolysis of foetal erythrocytes. Because of impaired bilirubin c...

Iron is indispensable for the proper functioning of virtually all cells in the body. However, red blood cells, which contain approximately 80% of organismal iron, have a particularly intimate relationship with this precious metal. It is safe to say that the iron content of erythroid progenitors (e.g., BFU-Es; please see below) is infi nitesimal compared to the amount of iron in mature erythrocy...

The eukaryotic heme oxygenases (HOs) (E.C. 1.14.99.3) convert heme to biliverdin, iron, and carbon monoxide (CO) in three successive oxygenation steps. Pathogenic bacteria require iron for survival and infection. Extracellular heme uptake from the host plays a critical role in iron acquisition and virulence. In the past decade, several HOs required for the release of iron from extracellular hem...

Hemolytic diseases, such as sickle cell anemia and thalassemia, are characterized by enhanced release of hemoglobin and heme into the circulation, heme-iron loading of reticulo-endothelial system macrophages, and chronic inflammation. Here we show that in addition to activating the vascular endothelium, hemoglobin and heme excess alters the macrophage phenotype in sickle cell disease. We demons...

The relationship between iron status and food iron absorption was evaluated in 75 normal volunteers, 15 patients with idiopathic hemochromatosis, and 22 heterozygotes by using double extrinsic radioiron tags to label independently the nonheme and heme iron components of a hamburger meal. In normal subjects, absorption from each of these pools was inversely correlated with storage iron, as measu...

Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1, a major cause of bacillary dysentery in humans, can use heme as a source of iron. Genes for the transport of heme into the bacterial cell have been identified, but little is known about proteins that control the fate of the heme molecule after it has entered the cell. The shuS gene is located within the heme transport locus, downstream of the heme receptor gene ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Some potential role of iron overload in the development of diabetes mellitus have been suggested. Our study aimed to systematically assess the association between the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and iron intakes/body iron status. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN PubMed and Web of Science were searched for relevant articles. Relative risks (RR) of GDM in relat...

Previous studies documented the abnormal association of heme and heme proteins with the sickle RBC membrane. We have now examined RBC ghosts and inside-out membranes (IOM) for the presence of nonheme iron as detected by its formation of a colored complex with ferrozine. Sickle ghosts have 33.8 +/- 18.2 nmol nonheme iron/mg membrane protein, and sickle IOM have 4.3 +/- 3.0 nmol/mg. In contrast, ...