[Lara]

From
11th International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders

Iron Deficiency in All Brain Regions Underlies RLS

A new MRI study from German researchers shows a significant decrease in
tissue iron content across virtually all brain regions in idiopathic RLS
patients, implicating iron metabolism in the pathophysiology of this
condition.
Medscape Medical News 2007
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/558359?src=mp
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Iron Deficiency in All Brain Regions Underlies RLS

The finding has also implications for the underlying disease mechanism in RLS, she noted, suggesting that any potential pathway would have to affect all brain areas. As RLS seems at least in part to be genetically determined, the most likely candidate gene would 1 related to iron metabolism.

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EDITED later to add Info. about Ferritin.

http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~edud.../Ferritin.html

Iron Use and Storage in the Body:
Ferritin and Molecular Representations
Iron in Biology: Study of the Iron Content in Ferritin, The Iron-Storage Protein.

Ferritin: The Iron-Storage Protein

How does the body regulate the amount of iron? Fortunately, most of us are able to maintain appropriate levels of available iron in the body (enough available iron to ensure an adequate supply of hemoglobin, but not so much as to produce toxic effects), even if our iron consumption does not always exactly match the body's iron loss. Ferritin (Figure 1) is the key to this important control of the amount of iron available to the body. Ferritin is a protein that stores iron and releases it in a controlled fashion. Hence, the body has a "buffer" against iron deficiency (if the blood has too little iron, ferritin can release more) and, to a lesser extent, iron overload (if the blood and tissues of the body have too much iron, ferritin can help to store the excess iron).

How does ferritin store iron? Ferritin has the shape of a hollow sphere. Inside the sphere, iron is stored in the Fe(III) oxidation state. It is incorporated in the mineral ferrihydrite, [FeO(OH)]8[FeO(H2PO4)], which is attached to the inner wall of the sphere. To release iron when the body needs it, the iron must be changed from the Fe(III) to the Fe(II) oxidation state. Then, the iron leaves through channels in the spherical structure. Thus, the structure of ferritin is extremely important for the protein's ability to store and release iron in a controlled fashion. In order to understand how ferritin helps to maintain the correct amount of available iron in the body, we must study the protein's structure in detail.