疾患における鉄の意義と治療応用

抄録

Iron is an essential trace metal element, and it is involved in hemoglobin synthesis, redox reaction, enzyme activity, cell proliferation and apoptosis in various cells. Therefore, iron overload has not attracted attention as compared with iron deficiency typified by anemia. Excessive iron produces hydroxyl radicals with strong oxidizing power via Fenton reaction, causing organ damage in hereditary iron overload diseases. Recent years, it has been clarified that iron accumulation is involved in the pathological conditions even in diseases including cardio-renal vascular diseases and metabolic diseases thought to be unrelated to iron so far. Therefore, the role of iron in the living body has been raised attention again.

We have revealed that iron reduction by iron chelator ameliorates adipose oxidative stress, contributing to the reduction of fat hypertrophy, macrophage infiltration and inflammatory cytokine expression in obese and diabetic KKAy mice. Dietary iron restriction also diminishes renal oxidative stress, leading to the inhibition of albuminuria excretion, glomerular lesions and inflammatory cytokines in db/db mice, a model of diabetic kidney disease.

In the presentation, we'd like to outline the role of iron on obesity diabetes and its complication, and the possibility of application to treatment with iron regulation in those disorders.