Evidence for a sequential transfer of iron amongst ferritin, transferrin and transferrin receptor during duodenal absorption of iron in rat and human

Table 1 Ferritin and transferrin concentrations in rat duodenum under various iron status conditions

Parameter	Control	Iron deficient	Iron excess
Ferritin (ng/mg protein)
Lumen	126.0a± 61.42	105.8a± 35.81	228.8c± 73.54
Mucosa	308.3c± 123.36	256.0c± 1.19	731.5e± 191.96
Transferrin (μg/mg protein)
Lumen	10.9b± 7.6	11.1b± 10.3	6.8b± 4.7
Mucosa	0.87d± 0.79	0.80d± 1.20	0.61d± 0.63

Values with different superscript letters within each column and row are significantly different at ^a,c,eP < 0.005 for ferritin and ^b,dP < 0.001 for transferrin by one way ANOVA (n = 5).