Iron metabolism

Abstract

Extract

An accepted haematological concept has recently been challenged by some animal experiments reported from the Department of Medicine, University of Chicago (Beutler, 1957). It has for long been assumed that, although the store of iron in the body is markedly depleted in iron-deficiency anaemia, the small amount present in iron enzymes escapes this depletion by means of some mechanism which ensures priority to their specific iron requirements in preference to the iron required for haemoglobin synthesis.