{"doi":"10.1016/j.advnut.2023.06.011","title":"Iron","abstract":"IronEach cell in the body acquires iron from the systemic circulation in a calibrated, carefully orchestrated manner for growth, development, and function [1,2].Iron, able to shuttle electrons between ferric (Fe 3þ ) and ferrous (Fe 2þ ) forms, is an essential element for oxygen transport, storage, and utilization.Iron is required for energy production and cellular proliferation and is present in cytochromes, heme and nonheme enzymes, iron-sulfur clusters, neurotransmitters, and other iron-dependent compounds.Although all cells require iron, the majority of body iron (~80%) is present within hemoglobin in circulating red blood cells.The body carefully conserves iron, losing only very small amounts each day, and has no regulated means of excretion.Consequently, iron homeostasis depends on the following: 1) strict control of intestinal iron absorption; 2) efficient recycling of iron from red blood cells at the end of their life span; 3) prompt passage of recycled iron to the erythroid marrow for effective erythropoiesis; and 4) managed maintenance of iron stores in macrophages and hepatocytes.The transport protein transferrin delivers iron through plasma to cells, with each molecule bearing up to 2 Fe 3þ ions.The master regulator of iron homeostasis, hepcidin, adjusts the concentration of transferrin-bound iron in the plasma to control the amount and distribution of body iron.The principal sources of iron export into plasma are the recycling of iron from senescent erythrocytes by specialized macrophages, dietary iron absorption by duodenal enterocytes, and iron release from hepatocyte stores.Hepcidin regulates iron entry to plasma by binding to the only known iron export protein, ferroportin.Hepcidin obstructs and induces degradation of ferroportin, resulting in the retention of iron within iron-exporting cells.Each cell in the body acquires iron from plasma transferrin by expressing transferrin receptor 1 on the cell membrane.After binding, the transferrin-iron-transferrin receptor 1 complex is internalized in an endocytic vesicle, and iron is subsequently released into the cytoplasm.Within the cell, the iron is either used for synthesis of iron-requiring compounds or is safely stored within ferritin, a large spherical protein that can hold up to 4500 iron atoms, and hemosiderin, aggregates of partially digested ferritin.In healthy individuals, plasma or serum ferritin concentrations are an indicator of the amount of body iron stores.With inflammation, plasma ferritin concentrations increase with the acute phase response while hepcidin rises and plasma iron falls.","journal":"Advances in Nutrition","year":2023,"id":365772,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9412,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1121633,"name":"Susan J. Fairweather‐Tait","orcid":"0000-0002-1413-5569","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":430271,"name":"Gary M. Brittenham","orcid":"0000-0002-5667-7446","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":1,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:14:50.885797Z","pmid":"37422198","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}