Skip to main content

Advanced Search

Haematologica
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Ahead Of Print
  • Archive
  • Submit a Manuscript
    • Author Guidelines
    • Reviewer Guidelines
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Track a Manuscript
  • About Us
    • About Haematologica
    • Editorial Board
    • Our Policies
  • More
    • Advertising
    • Rights & Permissions
    • Alerts
    • Feedback
    • Contact
Response to: Dietary and pharmacological factors affecting iron absorption in mice and man
Carine Fillebeen, Konstantinos Gkouvatsos, Gabriela Fragoso, Annie Calvé, Daniel Garcia-Santos, Marzell Buffler, Christiane Becker, Klaus Schümann, Prem Ponka, Manuela M. Santos, Kostas Pantopoulos
Haematologica March 2016 101: e122; doi:10.3324/haematol.2015.139741
Carine Fillebeen
Department of Medicine, McGill University, and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Konstantinos Gkouvatsos
Department of Medicine, McGill University, and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Gabriela Fragoso
Département de Médecine, Université de Montŕeal, and Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montŕeal (CRCHUM), QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Annie Calvé
Département de Médecine, Université de Montŕeal, and Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montŕeal (CRCHUM), QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Daniel Garcia-Santos
Department of Physiology, McGill University, and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montŕeal, QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Marzell Buffler
Science Center Weihenstephan, Technical University Munich, Freising, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Christiane Becker
Science Center Weihenstephan, Technical University Munich, Freising, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Klaus Schümann
Science Center Weihenstephan, Technical University Munich, Freising, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Prem Ponka
Department of Physiology, McGill University, and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montŕeal, QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Manuela M. Santos
Département de Médecine, Université de Montŕeal, and Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montŕeal (CRCHUM), QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kostas Pantopoulos
Department of Medicine, McGill University, and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, QC, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: kostas.pantopoulos@mcgill.ca

Author Affiliations

  1. Carine Fillebeen1,
  2. Konstantinos Gkouvatsos1,
  3. Gabriela Fragoso2,
  4. Annie Calvé2,
  5. Daniel Garcia-Santos3,
  6. Marzell Buffler4,
  7. Christiane Becker4,
  8. Klaus Schümann4,
  9. Prem Ponka3,
  10. Manuela M. Santos2 and
  11. Kostas Pantopoulos1,*⇑
  1. 1Department of Medicine, McGill University, and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, QC, Canada
  2. 2Département de Médecine, Université de Montŕeal, and Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montŕeal (CRCHUM), QC, Canada
  3. 3Department of Physiology, McGill University, and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montŕeal, QC, Canada
  4. 4Science Center Weihenstephan, Technical University Munich, Freising, Germany
  1. Correspondence: kostas.pantopoulos{at}mcgill.ca
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading
Key words

We agree with the comments of Kontoghiorghe et al.l on the effects of various dietary and pharmacological factors in iron absorption. There is no doubt that lipophilic iron compounds can be relatively efficiently absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, while hydrophilic iron complexes are impermeable to cellular membranes. Nevertheless, even though heme shares some physicochemical similarities to other lipophilic iron-binding compounds, it is a molecule with distinct and unique biological properties. Thus, gastrointestinal absorption,2 intracellular transport3 and extracellular neutralization4 of heme are mediated by specific pathways. Moreover, heme can only release iron in cells following its enzymatic degradation by heme oxygenases.5

As Kontoghiorghe et al. point out, and as is also demonstrated by epidemiological data,6 iron deficiency anemia is quite common in vegetarian and malnourished populations of developing countries, but is not frequently observed in Western populations consuming heme-rich diets. Consistently, nutritional studies have suggested that heme iron is more bioavailable to humans than inorganic iron.7 We showed that heme is a poor dietary iron source for mice.8 which is in line with the fact that these animals are not predators and rarely have access to hemerich sources of nutrition. We identified the rate-limiting step in the transport of luminal heme across the apical membrane of murine enterocytes. Based on these findings, we speculated that efficient heme absorption mechanisms may have evolved preferentially in carnivores and omnivores, and not in de facto vegetarian species. Future identification of the long-sought intestinal heme transporter(s) could provide experimental support to this hypothesis, if this molecule is differentially expressed in human and murine enterocytes.

Footnotes

  • ↵Information on authorship, contributions, and financial & other disclosures was provided by the authors and is available with the online version of this article at www.haematologica.org.

  • Copyright© Ferrata Storti Foundation

References

  1. 1.
    1. Kontoghiorghe CN,
    2. Kolnagou A,
    3. Kontoghiorghes GJ
    . Dietary and pharmacological factors affecting iron absorption in mice and man. Haematologica. 101(3)120–121.
  2. 2.↵
    1. West AR,
    2. Oates PS
    . Mechanisms of heme iron absorption: current questions and controversies. World J Gastroenterol. 2008;14(26): 4101–4110.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  3. 3.↵
    1. Korolnek T,
    2. Hamza I
    . Like iron in the blood of the people: the requirement for heme trafficking in iron metabolism. Front Pharmacol. 2014;5:126.
    OpenUrlPubMed
  4. 4.↵
    1. Chiabrando D,
    2. Vinchi F,
    3. Fiorito V,
    4. et al
    . Heme in pathophysiology: a matter of scavenging, metabolism and trafficking across cell membranes. Front Pharmacol. 2014;5:61.
    OpenUrlPubMed
  5. 5.↵
    1. Ryter SW,
    2. Alam J,
    3. Choi AM
    . Heme oxygenase-1/carbon monoxide: from basic science to therapeutic applications. Physiol Rev. 2006;86:583–650.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  6. 6.↵
    1. Kassebaum NJ,
    2. Jasrasaria R,
    3. Naghavi M,
    4. et al
    . A systematic analysis of global anemia burden from 1990 to 2010. Blood. 2014;123(5):615–624.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  7. 7.↵
    1. Carpenter CE,
    2. Mahoney AW
    . Contributions of heme and nonheme iron to human nutrition. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 1992;31(4):333–367.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  8. 8.↵
    1. Fillebeen C,
    2. Gkouvatsos K,
    3. Fragoso G,
    4. et al
    . Mice are poor heme absorbers and do not require intestinal Hmox1 for dietary heme iron assimilation. Haematologica. 2015;100(9):e334–337.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

Vol 101 Issue 3

Haematologica: 101 (3)
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author

Keywords

iron absorption
mice
men
Heme
diet
pharmacological factors
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about Haematologica.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Response to: Dietary and pharmacological factors affecting iron absorption in mice and man
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Haematologica
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the Haematologica web site.
Print
Citation Tools
Response to: Dietary and pharmacological factors affecting iron absorption in mice and man
Carine Fillebeen, Konstantinos Gkouvatsos, Gabriela Fragoso, Annie Calvé, Daniel Garcia-Santos, Marzell Buffler, Christiane Becker, Klaus Schümann, Prem Ponka, Manuela M. Santos, Kostas Pantopoulos
Haematologica Mar 2016, 101 (3) e122; DOI: 10.3324/haematol.2015.139741

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Carine Fillebeen, Konstantinos Gkouvatsos, Gabriela Fragoso, Annie Calvé, Daniel Garcia-Santos, Marzell Buffler, Christiane Becker, Klaus Schümann, Prem Ponka, Manuela M. Santos, Kostas Pantopoulos
Haematologica Mar 2016, 101 (3) e122; DOI: 10.3324/haematol.2015.139741
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Connotea logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Request Permissions
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Alert me when this article is cited
  • Alert me if a correction is posted

Jump To

  • Article
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

  • Identification of candidate nonsense mutations of FVIII for ribosomal readthrough therapy
  • Results from HARMONY: an open-label, multicenter, 2-arm, phase 1b, dose-finding study assessing the safety and efficacy of the oral combination of ruxolitinib and buparlisib in patients with myelofibrosis
  • Risk factors and outcomes according to age at transplantation with an HLA-identical sibling for sickle cell disease
Show more Online Only Articles

Related Articles

Cited By...

What about you?
Tell us your interests and get all the new contents of Haematologica in advance

 

 

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Ahead of print
  • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Advertisers
    • Subscribers
  • About us
    • About Haematologica
    • Editorial Board
    • Our policies

For Authors

  • Author guidelines
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Track Manuscript

For Reviewers

  • Reviewer Guidelines
  • Access Your Profile
  • Access Your Tasks
  • 2014 reviewers

For Advertisers

  • Information For Advertising

Education

  • Review Articles
  • Guideline Articles

More

  • Rights & Permissions
  • Advertising
  • Alerts
  • Feedback
  • Contact
  • App

Copyright © 2019 by the Ferrata Storti Foundation

ISSN 0390-6078 print

ISSN 1592-8721 online