Iron kinetics and erythron development.

The mathematical model of steady-state iron kinetics in the human presented here extends the use of radioactive tracer observations in the determination of erythron maturative and proliferative behavior. Functions descriptive of that behavior appear explicitly in the model together with functions customarily measured in standard tracer procedures. The model is compartmental, with transfers compatible with all observed erythropoietic and hemolytic mechanisms as well as with most plausible conjunctured mechanisms. Obtainable from the model is quantitative information about iron uptake, intermitotic intervals, and maturation time of erythrons; about intra- and extramedullary hemolysis; and about certain standard exchange rates. The model also permits tests of competing conjectures about erythron behavior.