Understanding iron requirements

摘要

The human body contains about 50mg/kg of iron. Of this, approximately 60 per cent is in the haemoglobin of red blood cells and 5 per cent is in the myoglobin of muscle cells. A further 30 per cent is found in body stores as ferritin (20 per cent) and haemosiderin (10 per cent), which are the two major iron-storage proteins and are found mainly in the liver. The remaining 5 per cent or so of the body's iron is distributed among various enzymes. A small amount (<0.1 per cent) is in transit in the circulation bound to transferrin, the main iron transport protein in the body.