Regulatory Effects of Cu, Zn, and Ca on Fe Absorption: The Intricate Play between Nutrient Transporters
Review article, 2013

Iron is an essential nutrient for almost every living organism because it is required in a number of biological processes that serve to maintain life. In humans, recycling of senescent erythrocytes provides most of the daily requirement of iron. In addition, we need to absorb another 1-2 mg Fe from the diet each day to compensate for losses due to epithelial sloughing, perspiration, and bleeding. Iron absorption in the intestine is mainly regulated on the enterocyte level by effectors in the diet and systemic regulators accessing the enterocyte through the basal lamina. Recently, a complex meshwork of interactions between several trace metals and regulatory proteins was revealed. This review focuses on advances in our understanding of Cu, Zn, and Ca in the regulation of iron absorption. Ascorbate as an important player is also considered.

Ca

absorption

ascorbate

hepcidin expression

duodenal cytochrome-b

nramp2 expression

intestinal epithelial-cells

iron-absorption

dietary iron

caco-2 cells

Zn

Fe

transcription

fpn1

ascorbic-acid

iron

Cu

copper transporter

Author

Nathalie Scheers

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Life Sciences

Nutrients

2072-6643 (ISSN) 20726643 (eISSN)

Vol. 5 3 957-970

Subject Categories

Biological Sciences

Nutrition and Dietetics

Areas of Advance

Life Science Engineering (2010-2018)

DOI

10.3390/nu5030957

More information

Latest update

7/19/2021