Is Iron Deficiency a Cause of Chronic Inflammation?

Abstract

Iron is an essential mineral required for a variety of vital biological functions. C-reactive protein (CRP) is widely used as a routine marker of chronic or acute inflammation. Both iron deficiency and excess induce proinflammatory activity in the body. We clinically observed that C-reactive protein, which was high before iron treatment, decreased after iron treatment. We aimed to investigate the authenticity of this clinical observation and compare our results with the literature. In this single-center, prospective study, 170 female patients of reproductive age who were found to have iron deficiency anemia according to the 2001 WHO iron deficiency criteria were included in this study, with the approval of the ethics committee. Hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, leukocyte, platelet, ferritin, folate, C-reactive protein values were recorded at the time of first admission and 4-8 weeks after the treatment. An increase in the levels of mean hemoglobin (11.7±1.4 vs 9.5±1.7; p<0.001), mean HCT (36.0±3.6 vs 30.7±4.7; p<0.001), mean MCV (76.7±7.8 vs 70.0±9.2; p<0.001), and median ferritin (43 vs 3.6; p<0.001) was observed in addition to a decrease in the levels of median platelet (273 vs 302; p<0.001) and median CRP (0.9 vs 1.3; p<0.001) in all patients after the treatment versus baseline.In the light of the results of our study and the literature, we can say that iron deficiency causes a chronic inflammatory process.