A Quantitative Study of the Fate of Recently Absorbed Food Iron

With the introduction of radioactive Fe 59 as a research tool there has been a greatly renewed interest in the investigation of iron absorption and metabolism. With the use of isotopes it is now possible to differentiate iron administered during a test period from that iron already present in the blood and body tissues or that present in the environment. Many balance studies have been performed to determine the amount of iron absorbed from a test meal under various laboratory and clinical conditions. 1-13 Though it has been noted that most of such iron is incorporated into hemoglobin, a fairly constant discrepancy between the iron found in the stools and that appearing in hemoglobin seemed apparent. Previous balance studies on the absorption of radioactive food iron in humans give little information concerning the fate of recently absorbed iron. The present investigation was undertaken to determine the amount of Fe 59