THE IRON CONTENT OF SERUM FERRITIN - PHYSIOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE AND DIAGNOSTIC-VALUE

In this paper we present a method for determining the iron saturation of ferritin as a possible independent predictor of iron stores. Serum ferritin was purified by immunochemical precipitation, and could be co mpletely recovered from serum without any contamination from transferr in. The iron content of the precipitated ferritin was determined by fl ameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS) and the ferritin-ir on saturation was calculated using the original serum ferritin concent ration. The intra- and inter-assay variation coefficients were 4.2% an d 13.4% respectively. The first results with this assay indicate that serum ferritin contains a considerable amount of iron. Furthermore the results show that the iron saturation of ferritin in patients with ac ute phase response is significantly lower than the saturation found in healthy volunteers (19.3% and 24.3% respectively). These results sugg est a possible role for the ferritin-iron saturation in the assessment of iron stores in patients suffering from acute phase response. Tn ad dition, the considerable amount of iron in ferritin suggests the need to revise the physiological role of this substance in relation to the serum iron homeostasis.