Iron metabolism

From bacteria to humans, many molecular structures and metabolic pathways involve iron as an oxygen and/or electron carrier. However, despite its essential role for all living beings, iron is toxic by inducing the formation of free radicals. As a consequence, the human body has a fine regulation regarding the iron cycle and any unbalance can lead to diseases such as hemochromatosis and thalassemia.

The iron cycle

The human body barely absorbs iron from the outside. In fact, its loss is very low due to a constant and tight recycling after the degradation of blood cells. The ion needs every day is approximately 20 mg, which contrasts greatly comapred to a total pool of 3000 to 5000 mg. rganism is able to recycle the iron from blood cells and needs very few from its environment (20mg/day). Moreover, the loss is very low this amount represents 20 mg a day for a total pool of 4000 mg, thus meaning our organism