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Ferritin is found in most tissues as a cytosolic protein, but small amounts are secreted into the serum where it functions as an iron carrier. Plasma ferritin is also an indirect marker of the total amount of iron stored in the body; hence, serum ferritin is used as a diagnostic test for iron-deficiency anemia and iron overload. [4]
Hemosiderin or haemosiderin is an iron-storage complex that is composed of partially digested ferritin and lysosomes. The breakdown of heme gives rise to biliverdin and iron. [1] [2] The body then traps the released iron and stores it as hemosiderin in tissues. [3] Hemosiderin is also generated from the abnormal metabolic pathway of ferritin. [3]
The physiological role of decreased synthesis of such proteins is generally to save amino acids for producing "positive" acute-phase proteins more efficiently. Theoretically, a decrease in transferrin could additionally be decreased by an upregulation of transferrin receptors , but the latter does not appear to change with inflammation.
“I tell patients that acute or short-term inflammation has positive traits because it's the body's natural mechanism to protect injured tissue and fight off infection,” adds Dr. Dolansky ...
Human iron metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that maintain human homeostasis of iron at the systemic and cellular level. Iron is both necessary to the body and potentially toxic. Controlling iron levels in the body is a critically important part of many aspects of human health and disease.
Infection describes the interaction between the action of microbial invasion and the reaction of the body's inflammatory response—the two components are considered together in discussion of infection, and the word is used to imply a microbial invasive cause for the observed inflammatory reaction. Inflammation, on the other hand, describes ...
Serum ferritin is a low cost, readily available, and minimally invasive method for assessing body iron stores. However, the major problem with using it as an indicator of hemosiderosis is that it can be elevated in a range of other medical conditions unrelated to iron levels including infection, inflammation, fever, liver disease, renal disease ...
Other causes can include acid reflux, asthma, allergies, or other chronic medical conditions, adds Richard Watkins, M.D., an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the Northeast ...