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Measures of Iron Metabolism and Applications to Dietary Patterns

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Biomarkers in Nutrition

Abstract

Iron deficiency (ID) remains the most common nutritional disorder worldwide. Although iron is biologically essential, tight regulation of iron balance is critical to prevent iron toxicity. Significant progress has been made on iron disorder diseases since the discovery of hepcidin in 2000. Hepcidin, a master iron regulator, controls iron balance through degradation of ferroportin, the only known mammalian iron exporter. Insufficient hepcidin synthesis is central to hereditary iron overload. Uncontrolled inflammation promotes hepcidin overproduction and triggers functional ID and anemia of inflammation. Hence, the etiology of iron restriction and iron overload is distinct from absolute ID. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of diet and iron disorder with special focus on absolute ID, functional ID, and hereditary iron overload. Advances in the understanding of hepcidin and its interactions with diet may help translate into making effective dietary approaches for patients with different types of iron disorder.

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Abbreviations

ACD:

Anemia of chronic disease

AI:

Anemia of inflammation

CI:

Confidence interval

Cp:

Ceruloplasmin

CRP:

C-reactive protein

CT:

Computerized tomography

DII:

Dietary inflammatory index

DMT1:

Divalent transporter 1

EPO:

Erythropoietin

GDF 15:

Growth/differentiation factor-15

Hb:

Hemoglobin

HFE:

Hemochromatosis

HH:

Hereditary hemochromatosis

HJV:

Hemojuvelin BMP co-receptor

ID:

Iron deficiency

IDA:

Iron deficiency anemia

MCH:

Mean corpuscular hemoglobin

MCV:

Mean corpuscular volume

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

Mφ:

Macrophages

ORs:

Odds ratio

PUFA:

Polyunsaturated fatty acid

RBCs:

Red blood cells

RDAs:

Recommended daily allowances

SCA:

Sickle cell anemia

sTfR:

Soluble transferrin receptor

TfR2:

Transferrin receptor 2

TIBC:

Total iron-binding capacity

Tsat:

Transferrin saturation

Vit:

Vitamin

WHO:

World Health Organization

WMD:

Weighted mean differences

ZnPP:

Zinc protoporphyrin

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by grant no. 20-515-S52003 from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Russia) and grant no. 109-2923-B-038-001-MY3 from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) (Taiwan).

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Correspondence to Jung-Su Chang .

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© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Chang, JS., Tinkov, A.A., Lundy, D.J., Skalny, A.V. (2022). Measures of Iron Metabolism and Applications to Dietary Patterns. In: Patel, V.B., Preedy, V.R. (eds) Biomarkers in Nutrition . Biomarkers in Disease: Methods, Discoveries and Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07389-2_14

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