Patterns of Food Iron Absorption in Iron‐Deficient White and Indian Subjects and in Venesected Haemochromatotic Patients

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Abstract
The absorption of radioactive Fe from a solution of ferrous ascorbate, and from a standard meal containing intrinsically labeled Hb and wheat, was measured in 12 Indian housewives, 18 white hospital patients and 12 subjects with idiopathic hemochromatosis. Of the latter, 8 were treated by multiple venesections, so that their serum ferritin concentrations were below 25 .mu.g/l. Since the serum ferritin concentrations of the housewives and the hospital patients were comparable, their body Fe stores were considered to be depleted to a similar degree. There were no significant differences betweeen the absorptions of ferrous ascorbate or of the heme Fe in the standard meal by each group, but the housewives and the hospital patients absorbed significantly less of the non-heme food Fe. The mean non-heme food Fe absorptions were 36.4, 5.8 and 18.9% for the treated hemochromatotic subjects, the Indian housewives and the white hospital patients, respectively. The discrepancies between the absorptions of the different forms of food Fe were highlighted by calculating the ratios between them. The mean non-heme:heme food Fe absorption ratio for the group of treated hemochromatotic subjects was 0.98, and for the Indian housewives only 0.18. The white hospital patients did not form a homogeneous population; the ratios of the 5 males and 3 of the females were greater than 1.0, whereas those of the remaining 10 females were less than 0.5. Malabsorption of non-heme Fe from a meal containing bread, presumably due to a defect at the luminal level, may be an important factor in the pathogenesis of Fe deficiency in some subjects. The abnormality appears to be particularly prevalent among Indian women living in Durban [South Africa].