Iron: make new with old, a virtuous circle

The exploration of iron metabolism is an old topic of interest. Indeed, this metal has a significant impact on human health.

On the one hand, iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency, with nearly two Billiards individuals worldwide suffering from insufficient iron supplies. On the other hand, iron overload is one of the most common genetically inherited diseases. Finally, very rare congenital anemia may lead to diagnosis wandering.

Iron deficiency is responsible for abnormal neurodevelopment in infants. Moreover, more and more scientific reports have evidenced that iron deficiency, even without anemia, is a risk factor in various diseases and is implied in the response and recovery after surgery.

Another point to consider is the fact that iron exploration is imperfectly realized worldwide. First, the choice of biomarkers is not so simple, and other conditions such as inflammation, or the time sampling during the day, may modify this choice.

Second, the threshold for interpretation of those biomarkers may vary among sources and according to the society that has made recommendations.

Finally, the treatment of iron deficiency has evolved during the last decade.

As a sum, we thought it is interesting to overview and update the actuality of iron in human health.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Journal of Laboratory and Precision Medicine for the series “Physiology and Pathology of Iron Metabolism”. This article has undergone external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jlpm-21-40). The series “Physiology and Pathology of Iron Metabolism” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. KP served as the Guest Editor of the series. Dr. KP reports to be in the participation of educational events, ad follow up of the Carenfer study, sustained by Vifor france.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of this work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of this work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Katell Peoc’h