Lead exposure is a well-known cause of increases in urinary coproporphyrin and erythrocyte zinc-protoporphyrin, so these compounds are often used to monitor occupational lead exposure. The increased concentrations are usually assumed to result from lead inhibition of two of the mitochondrial enzymes of heme biosynthesis, coproporphyrinogen oxidase (EC 1.3.3.3) and ferrochelatase (EC 4.99.1.1). ...

The dimorphic blood picture in sideroblastic anemia suggests the coexistence of at least two types of erythrocyte, the populations with the smaller RBCs being responsible for the crucial abnormality, namely the impairment of iron incorporation into protoporphyrin. In a patient with sideroblastic anemia who subsequently developed acute myelocytic leukemia, we found a light and a heavy cell popul...

OBJECTIVES To assess nutritional iron status and anemia prevalence in children less than 5 years old at public daycare centers in the city of Recife, PE, Brazil. METHODS A cross-sectional study, with a systematic random sampling of 162 children aged 6 to 59 months. Nutritional iron status was assessed in terms of body iron reserves (serum ferritin), transferrinemia (serum iron, total iron bin...

We measured the concentration of erythrocyte protoporphyrin in 43 blood samples by two fluorometric methods. In the indirect method, protoporphyrin was extracted from blood and the fluorescence of the free acid in the extract was determined with a filter-fluorometer. These results were compared with results of direct determination of protoporphyrin in the same samples. In the direct assay the f...