Whole-body iron transport and metabolism: Mechanistic, multi-scale model to improve treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease

by Joydeep Sarkar, Alka A. Potdar, Gerald M. Saidel Iron plays vital roles in the human body including enzymatic processes, oxygen-transport via hemoglobin and immune response. Iron metabolism is characterized by ~95% recycling and minor replenishment through diet. Anemia of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized by a lack of synthesis of er ythropoietin leading to reduced red blood cell (RBC) formation and aberrant iron recycling. Treatment of CKD anemia aims to normalize RBC count and serum hemoglobin. Clinically, the various fluxes of iron transport and accumulation are not measured so that changes during disease (e.g., CKD) and trea tment are unknown. Unwanted iron accumulation in patients is known to lead to adverse effects. Current whole-body models lack the mechanistic details of iron transport related to RBC maturation, transferrin (Tf and TfR) dynamics and assume passive iron efflux from macrophages. Hence, they are not pr edictive of whole-body iron dynamics and cannot be used to design individualized patient treatment. For prediction, we developed a mechanistic, multi-scale computational model of whole-body iron metabolism incorporating four compartments containing major pools of iron and RBC generation process. The model accounts for multiple forms of ironin vivo, mechanisms involved in iron uptake and release and their regulation. Furthermore, the model is interfaced with drug pharmacokinetics to allow simulation of treatment dynamics. We calibrated our m...
Source: PLoS Computational Biology - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: research