title: Hepatic iron in the control of iron absorption in a rat liver transplantation model.
abstract: Rat liver transplantation was utilized to study the effect of hepatic iron on the control of iron absorption. Six iron-loaded and six normal livers were transplanted into normal or iron-loaded animals. Iron absorption was measured pretransplant and 10 days posttransplant by total-body counting (59Fe). The animals were loaded with oral carbonyl iron to produce a predominantly parenchymal hepatic iron distribution and with parenteral iron dextran to produce a predominantly reticuloendothelial iron distribution. The carbonyl iron-loaded livers contained 175 +/- 6.6, the iron dextran livers 180 +/- 41, and the normal livers 6.6 +/- 2.8 mumol FE/g dry wt. Iron absorption was unchanged by the insertion of normal livers into normal animals. The transplantation of carbonyl iron-loaded livers into normal animals caused a marked decrease in iron absorption posttransplant from 7.2 +/- 0.9% to 0.3 +/- 0.4% (P less than .001) posttransplant. Neither the transplantation of iron dextran-loaded livers into normal animals nor the transplantation of normal livers into iron-loaded animals significantly altered iron absorption at 10 days posttransplant. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that hepatocyte iron stores are a major determining factor controlling iron absorption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Queensland, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Reece
authors.forename: L W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Halliday
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000818:Animals; D006084:Graft Rejection; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D008099:Liver / Q000032:analysis; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
chemical_list: D007501:Iron