Understanding anemia of chronic disease

The anemia of chronic disease is an old disease concept, but contemporary research in the role of proinflammatory cytokines and iron biology has shed new light on the pathophysiology of the condition. Recent epidemiologic studies have connected the anemia of chronic disease with critical illness, obesity, aging, and kidney failure, as well as with the well-established associations of cancer, chronic infection, and autoimmune disease. Functional iron deficiency, mediated principally by the interaction of interleukin-6, the iron regulatory hormone hepcidin, and the iron exporter ferroportin, is a major contributor to the anemia of chronic disease. Although anemia is associated with adverse outcomes, experimental models suggest that iron sequestration is desirable in the setting of severe infection. Experimental therapeutic approaches targeting interleukin-6 or the ferroportin-hepcidin axis have shown efficacy in reversing anemia in either animal models or human patients, although these agents have not yet been approved for the treatment of the anemia of chronic disease.