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The brain is resistant to acute iron deficiency due to the slow transport of iron through the blood brain barrier. [180] Acute fluctuations in iron status (marked by serum ferritin levels) do not reflect brain iron status, but prolonged nutritional iron deficiency is suspected to reduce brain iron concentrations over time.
The human brain is the central organ of the nervous system, and with the spinal cord, comprises the central nervous system. It consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. The brain controls most of the activities of the body, processing, integrating, and coordinating the information it receives from the sensory nervous system ...
Human iron metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that maintain human homeostasis of iron at the systemic and cellular level. Iron is both necessary to the body and potentially toxic. Controlling iron levels in the body is a critically important part of many aspects of human health and disease.
Iron is also stored as a pigment called hemosiderin, which is an ill-defined deposit of protein and iron, created by macrophages where excess iron is present, either locally or systemically, e.g., among people with iron overload due to frequent blood cell destruction and the necessary transfusions their condition calls for. If systemic iron ...
Accumulation of iron in the brain is extremely dangerous as excess iron catalyzes the formation of free radicals, which have damaging effects to the brain. [1] The iron accumulation characteristic of neuroferritinopathy particularly affects the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and motor cortex regions of the brain.
Ferritin genes are highly conserved between species. All vertebrate ferritin genes have three introns and four exons. [8] In human ferritin, introns are present between amino acid residues 14 and 15, 34 and 35, and 82 and 83; in addition, there are one to two hundred untranslated bases at either end of the combined exons. [9]
Iron deficiency protects against infection by creating an unfavorable environment for bacterial growth. Nevertheless, while iron deficiency might lessen infections by certain pathogenic diseases, it also leads to a reduction in resistance to other strains of viral or bacterial infections, such as Salmonella typhimurium or Entamoeba histolytica ...
[55] [63] Iron can be found in three forms in the brain – magnetite, hemoglobin (blood) and ferritin (protein), and areas of the brain related to motor function generally contain more iron. [63] [64] Magnetite can be found in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is associated with information processing, specifically learning and memory. [63]