What is ferritin function?
Ferritin is a protein that stores iron inside your cells. You need iron to make healthy red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Iron is also important for healthy muscles, bone marrow, and organ function.
What diseases cause low ferritin?
Summary of Diseases Associated With Lower Ferritin
- Anemia [2]
- Fatigue [3]
- Hair loss [4, 5, 6, 7]
- Fibromyalgia [8]
- IBD [9]
- Hypothyroidism [10]
- Depression [11]
- Anxiety [12]
What is ferritin normal level?
The normal range for blood ferritin is: For men, 24 to 336 micrograms per liter. For women, 11 to 307 micrograms per liter.
What causes high ferritin levels?
The most common causes of elevated ferritin levels are obesity, inflammation, and daily alcohol intake. The most common causes of genetic-related elevated ferritin levels is the condition hemochromatosis.
What is ferritin made from?
The unique structure of ferritin forms a spherical shell in which the iron is “stored” as Fe(III) in a crystalline mineral. Ferritin consists of 24 peptide subunits that form two types of channels where these subunits intersect; the 3-fold channel is polar and the 4-fold channel is nonpolar.
What is the impact of ferritin?
High levels of ferritin can damage your joints, heart, liver, and pancreas. Too much iron is most often caused by an inherited disease called hemochromatosis. Many people with this disease never have any symptoms, especially women who lose iron through menstruation.
How do you treat high ferritin levels?
Iron chelation therapy involves taking oral or injected medicine to remove excess iron from the body. Medications can include a drug that binds the excess iron before the body excretes it. Although doctors do not tend to recommend this as a first-line treatment for hemochromatosis, it may be suitable for some people.
Where is ferritin synthesized?
the liver
Synthesis occurs in the liver and the rate of synthesis correlates directly with the cellular iron content. Control of ferritin synthesis occurs post-transcriptionally (at the mRNA level) and there are iron- and cytokine-responsive elements in ferritin mRNA.