Iron, ferritin, and nutrition

Ferritin, a major form of endogenous iron in food legumes such as soybeans, is a novel and natural alternative for iron supplementation strategies where effectiveness is limited by acceptability, cost, or undesirable side effects. A member of the nonheme iron group of dietary iron sources, ferritin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of nutrition 2004-01, Vol.24 (1), p.327-343
Main Author: THEIL, Elizabeth C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Availability
Biological properties
Dietary Supplements
Feeding. Feeding behavior
Ferritins - metabolism
Ferritins - pharmacokinetics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Iron
Iron - deficiency
Iron - metabolism
Iron, Dietary - administration & dosage
Iron, Dietary - pharmacokinetics
Microorganisms
Nutrient deficiency
Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Rats
Soybeans
Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems
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Summary:Ferritin, a major form of endogenous iron in food legumes such as soybeans, is a novel and natural alternative for iron supplementation strategies where effectiveness is limited by acceptability, cost, or undesirable side effects. A member of the nonheme iron group of dietary iron sources, ferritin is a complex with Fe3+ iron in a mineral (thousands of iron atoms inside a protein cage) protected from complexation. Ferritin illustrates the wide range of chemical and biological properties among nonheme iron sources. The wide range of nonheme iron receptors matched to the structure of the iron complexes that occurs in microorganisms may, by analogy, exist in humans. An understanding of the chemistry and biology of each type of dietary iron source (ferritin, heme, Fe2+ ion, etc.), and of the interactions dependent on food sources, genes, and gender, is required to design diets that will eradicate global iron deficiency in the twenty-first century.
ISSN:0199-9885
1545-4312
DOI:10.1146/annurev.nutr.24.012003.132212