Nutritional Endocrinology Practitioner Training (NEPT)
Clinical Pearl
November 13th, 2016 

 

Ferritin as Inflammation Marker

I’ve begun some research into the phenomenons of high serum iron with low ferritin and low serum iron with high serum ferritin.

Based on the understanding that ferritin is a storage form of iron, it would seem logical that in cases of severe anemia, we’d see both low and in cases of hemochromatosis we’d see both high.

However, I’ve seen a lot of patients with the paradox of low iron and high ferritin and vice-versa.

In researching, I have come across a few articles, and I am also pursuing the biochemical pathways to better understand what might be going wrong.

One of the articles I came across is this one:

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2014/mt/c3mt00347g

It contains a lot of information linking ferritin to inflammation, along with charts that help clarify.

We’re a long way from fully understanding it, but I will keep you in the loop.