[Iron metabolism and anemia].

Iron is essential for all living organisms. Iron is taken up from the foods by enterocytes of the duodenum and proximal jejunum, and then released into the plasma and transported to whole body by binding to transferrin. Transferrin-bound iron is utilized mainly for erythropoiesis at the bone marrow, in which iron is essential for the formation of heme. Recently, a new anti-microbial peptide, named hepcidin, was identified, and hepcidin is found to function as the regulator of body iron metabolism by inhibiting iron uptake at enterocyte and iron release from reticuloendothelial macrophages. Hepcidin is produced by hepatocytes, and the expression is modulated by inflammation so that hepcidin is thought to be involved in the pathophysiology of anemia of chronic disease. Research in the iron metabolism field has been developing rapidly these years, and the new innovational therapies for the disease caused by the dysregulation of iron metabolism are expected.