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Plasma Iron Turnover in Normal Subjects

U.S. Public Health Service Hospital and University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington

Correspondence: For reprints contact: D. D. Funk, U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, P.O. Box 3145, Seattle, Wash. 98114.

ABSTRACT

Plasma iron turnover has been used extensively as a simplified measure of total erythropoiesis and in more complex estimates of internal iron exchange. Of concern to both is the question of stability of iron kinetics since all calculations are based on an equilibrium state. Past studies have shown differences in repeated plasma iron turnovers but no consistent variation during the day. This has been examined in detail by repeated measurement over the 24-hr period in 45 normal subjects involving 106 determinations. The studies consisted of two groups studied at 12-hr intervals and one group at 6-hr intervals. Mean values of initial studies were 0.62, 0.80 and 0.87 mg/100 ml whole blood/day with a composite mean of 0.71. Variation among all subjects was ± 24%. Plasma iron turnover changed in the direction of plasma iron at a rate of 0.036 mg/100 ml whole blood/day for a variation in plasma iron of 10 µg%.

In the subjects studied at 6-hr intervals, both inflow and outflow were changing but no systematic changes were evident. These studies indicate that cyclic change in the plasma iron pool relates primarily to varying inflow; and outflow is influenced by the plasma iron level. However, changes in turnover are small in comparison to variation in plasma iron.