Iron overload in Africa was previously regarded as purely due to excessive iron in traditional beer, but we recently found evidence that transferrin saturation and unsaturated iron binding capacity may be influenced by an interaction between dietary iron content and a gene distinct from any HLA-linked locus. To determine if serum ferritin follows a genetic pattern and to confirm our previous ob...

OBJECTIVE Because iron is both an essential and toxic micronutrient influencing the development of microbial infections, we evaluated the usefulness of iron parameters as outcome predictors in ICU patients. DESIGN Prospective clinical single-center non-interventional study. SETTING General internal medicine ICU; German University hospital. PATIENTS One hundred and twelve septic and 43 non...

Background. Ferritin and the percentage of transferrin saturation (TS) are established parameters with which to evaluate endogenous iron availability during treatment of renal anaemia with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo). Zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) has been proposed as another valid marker in this setting. Methods. We determined the following parameters in 127 patients, including 117 h...

iron is essential to erythrocyte oxygen transport and is a catalyst for oxidative metabolism in all cells. iron is absorbed by the duodenum and requires an acidic environment for optimal absorption. iron is found for 70% in erythrocytes, and 30% in storage, and a small amount in myoglobin and cytochromes. iron supplementation reduces anemia in breastfed infants and increases in significant dose...

To test the hypothesis that the quantities of circulating transferrin receptors are reduced in iron overload, we studied serum transferrin receptors and indirect measures of iron status in 150 subjects from rural Zimbabwe. We found significant inverse correlations between serum concentrations of transferrin receptors and ferritin, the ratio of ferritin to aspartate aminotransferase, and transfe...

Rabbit transferrin in vitro is shown to load ferrous iron at random on its specific binding sites. The release of iron to reticulocytes is shown to be an all-or-none phenomenon. The two monoferric transferrins have similar in vivo plasma iron clearance rates and tissue distribution. Diferric transferrin, while giving a similar tissue distribution of radioiron, has a plasma iron clearance rate a...

AIM To determine whether iron metabolism influences the incidence of systemic fungal infection in patients with haematological malignancies. METHODS The study population comprised 74 patients who had undergone myeloablative chemotherapy. Systemic fungal infections were classified as confirmed (histological confirmation or characteristic septate hyphae) or possible (antibiotic resistant fever ...

Cigarette smoking results in the accumulation of iron both systemically and locally, in the lung thereby causing imbalance in iron homeostasis. This disruption in iron homeostasis can be associated with oxidative stress and consequent tissue injury. Therefore, in this study, we tested the association between iron homeostasis and airway obstruction by examining a large cohort of smokers and non-...

Free erythrocyte porphyrin:hemoglobin (FEP:Hb) ratios were determined on 20 infants with iron-deficiency anemia. FEB:Hb ratios were compared with simultaneously drawn serum ferritin and serum transferrin saturation levels. FEP:Hb ratios dropped steadily during treatment of the anemic infants, but remained elevated compared to age-matched nonanemic infants, until the anemia was corrected. FEP:Hb...