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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Measurement of Tissue Non-Heme Iron Content using a Bathophenanthroline-Based Colorimetric Assay
Published on: January 31, 2022
[Recent advance in the understanding of iron metabolism and its role on host defense]
Kyoko Hishikawa1, Kazuhiro Iwai
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University.
Abstract:
Iron is an essential trace element for human beings, but at the same time, it is toxic for us to generate free radicals because of its high reactivity to molecular oxygen. Therefore, iron metabolism is tightly regulated. Recently, hepcidin, a peptide hormone secreted by hepatocytes in response to iron overload and inflammation, has been identified to be a predominant negative regulator of iron absorption in the duodenum and iron release from tissue macrophages. The discovery of hepcidin unexpectedly revealed the link between iron metabolism and host defense. Here we describe recent advance in our understanding on the regulation of iron metabolism, including our findings and discuss its relationship to various diseases.
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