BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF IRON METABOLISM IN NEWBORNS AND CHILDREN OF THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE

Abstract

As a rule, all children's diets contain marginal, or maximum, amounts of digestible dietary iron. At the same time, children have increased dietary iron requirements due to rapid growth, weight gain, increased circulating blood volume, and the accompanying intensification of erythropoiesis. All of this undoubtedly impacts iron metabolism in the child's body, as well as the exchange of metabolic forms of iron—transport and storage iron—which are represented in the peripheral blood by serum transferrin and ferritin, respectively. The levels of these metalloproteins in the bloodstream are regulated by a feedforward and feedback loop with the overall pool of iron stored in the body. Therefore, these metalloproteins can be considered sensitive biochemical markers of iron metabolism in the body, and their bloodstream levels can be used in the diagnosis of iron deficiency conditions and in monitoring treatment.