Iron in Cell Metabolism and Disease

Abstract

Iron is the trace element. We get the iron from the dietary sources. The enterocytes lining the upper duodenal of the intestine absorb the dietary iron through a divalent metal transporter (DMT1). The absorbed ferrous iron is oxidized to ferric iron in the body. This ferric iron from the blood is carried to different tissues by an iron transporting protein, transferrin. The cells in the tissues take up this ferric form of iron by internalizing the apo transferrin with its receptors on them. The apo transferrin complex in the cells get dissociated resulting in the free iron in cell which is utilized for cellular purposes or stored in the bound form to an iron storage protein, ferritin. The physiological levels of iron are critical for the normal physiology and pathological outcomes, hence the iron I rightly called as double-edged sword. This chapter on iron introduces the readers basic information of iron, cellular uptake, metabolism, and its role cellular physiology and provides the readers with the scope and importance of research on iron that hold the great benefit for health care and personalized medicine or diseases specific treatment strategies, blood transfusions and considerations.