Abstract
Various iron chelates and polymers with molecular weights below 100,000 were prepared in order to study the mechanism of iron absorption by the intestine in vitro and in vivo.
It was observed by in vitro experiments using mouse intestine that iron chelates and polymer with molecular weights below 10,000 were similarly transported from mucosal to serosal medium, but iron polymer with a molecular weight of 100,000 was not transported at all. The amount of iron transported from mucosa to serosa proportionally depended on the iron concentration in the mucosal medium, and the iron concentration in serosal and mucosal medium was equilibrated with a concentration gradient which was parallel to the reciprocal of the molecular weight of iron complexes.
Furthermore, it was confirmed by in vivo study using ligated rat intestine that iron is transferred from mucosa into the blood stream not only in ionic or chelate forms but also as low molecular weight iron polymers which are unaffected in intestinal cells.
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Terato, K., Fujita, T. & Yoshino, Y. Studies on iron absorption. Digest Dis Sci 18, 121–128 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01073155
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01073155