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The Diurnal Variation of Plasma Iron Turnover and Erythropoiesis in Healthy Subjects and Cancer Patients
Author(s) -
Lockner D.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2141.1966.tb00148.x
Subject(s) - morning , erythropoiesis , diurnal temperature variation , endocrinology , medicine , transferrin , chemistry , anemia , atmospheric sciences , physics
The amount of plasma iron transported per time unit (PIT) is usually calculated from values obtained in the morning. It is known, however, that one of the key parameters necessary for the calculation of PIT, namely serum iron concentration, shows pronounced diurnal variations (Vahlquist, 1941; Hemmeler, 1944; Höyer, 1944a, b; Waldenström, 1946; Schlaphoff, Johnston, and Boroughs, 1950; Hamilton, Gubler, Cartwright and Wintrobe, 1950; Paterson, Marrack and Wiggins, 1952). It remains uncertain whether these serum iron variations are accompanied by changes in the half time of serum iron disappearance, whether PIT is constant throughout the day and, if not, whether a constant relation between PIT determined in the morning and that measured at other times of the day exists. It is also not known whether such possible relations change under pathological conditions and if PIT fluctuations indicate variation in erythropoiesis. Recently erythropoietic models have been proposed developed from plasma 59 Fe disappearance data determined in the morning and partly also from radio‐iron appearance in erythrocytes and changes in organ activity (Pollycove and Mortimer, 1961; Sharney, Wasserman, Schwartz and Tendler, 1963; Garby, Schneider, Sundquist and Vuille, 1963; Najean, Ardaillou, Dresch and Mulmann, 1964; Vuille, 1965, Sharney, Gevirtz, Wasserman, Schwartz, Levitan, Mittleman and Tendler, 1965). Some of these models include proposed compartments, not all of which could be proved to exist (Noyes, Hosain and Finch, 1964; Najean et al. , 1964; Lockner, 1966). The influence of possible diurnal variations of PIT on such models is not established, although the model proposed by Garby et al. (1963) and recently refined by Vuille (1965) was shown to be relatively independent of such diurnal variations. Two studies only have been published investigating the diurnal variation of PIT. In the first (Bothwell and Mallett, 1955) in which 20 patients were studied, 59 Fe bound to purified β 1 ‐globulin was used, a technique which the same author later demonstrated to give false results (Bothwell, Hurtado, Donohue and Finch, 1957). The second study (Paterson, 1957) was on five subjects including three normals, a material which did not allow far reaching conclusions. For these reasons and to answer the question whether changes observed when studying the PIT of patients with cancer could be explained by the diurnal variation of PIT further studies of these variations and their relation to erythropoiesis have been carried out. A preliminary account of part of this work has already been published (Lockner, 1963, 1964).