The physiology of iron trafficking and metabolism has been well evaluated over the last 20 years, and several comprehensive reviews have been published on the subject. This review addresses some important physiologic pathways involved in iron metabolism of human that have relevance to transfusion medicine specialists in charge of donor management. The expression ‘ironomics’ has been used by investigators analyzing the role of iron transporters among Yersinia pestis biotypes and its nearest neighbor, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, whereas the term ‘ironome’ was used by authors to describe iron metabolism and trafficking within cells and organelles. It is a global approach, facilitated by the development of analytical and computational tools, that has allowed to decipher the biological processes assuring iron homeostasis in plants at the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic levels as well as to propose an integrative view on how plants respond to a varying supply of iron. In vegetal biology, the term ‘ferromics’ has been coined it covers all aspects of research unraveling the mysteries behind the perception and response to iron deficiency in plants. Several papers addressed the question of genomics or of proteomics of iron metabolism in various organisms such as tomato or Arabidopsis, but not in human.
In addition, many genetic variations of proteins, directly or indirectly involved in iron metabolism have been described, and their identification proved useful for the diagnosis of iron metabolic disorders. However, more sophisticated tests are available, notably measurements of transferrin (Tf), of soluble transferrin receptor (sTfr) or of hepcidin, reflecting dynamics of iron metabolism. Various tests have been developed to evaluate iron metabolism and iron stores, and nowadays bone marrow examination has been replaced by the measurement of blood ferritin.
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