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Blood, 8 January 2009, Vol. 113, No. 2, pp. 462-469. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on September 24, 2008; DOI 10.1182/blood-2008-05-155952. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Figure All Versions of this Article: blood-2008-05-155952v1 113/2/462    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jiao, Y. Articles by Torti, S. V. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jiao, Y. Articles by Torti, S. V. Related Collections Red Cells, Iron, and Erythropoiesis Related Article in Blood Online Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  RED CELLS, IRON, AND ERYTHROPOIESIS Curcumin, a cancer chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agent, is a biologically active iron chelator Yan Jiao1, John Wilkinson, IV1,2, Xiumin Di1, Wei Wang1, Heather Hatcher1, Nancy D. Kock3, Ralph D'Agostino, Jr2,4, Mary Ann Knovich5, Frank M. Torti1,2, and Suzy V. Torti2,6 1 Department of Cancer Biology, 2 Comprehensive Cancer Center, 3 Department of Pathology, 4 Department of Public Health Sciences, 5 Section of Hematology/Oncology, and 6 Department of Biochemistry, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC Curcumin is a natural product currently in human clinical trials for a variety of neoplastic, preneoplastic, and inflammatory conditions. We previously observed that, in cultured cells, curcumin exhibits properties of an iron chelator. To test whether the chelator activity of curcumin is sufficient to induce iron deficiency in vivo, mice were placed on diets containing graded concentrations of both iron and curcumin for 26 weeks. Mice receiving the lowest level of dietary iron exhibited borderline iron deficiency, with reductions in spleen and liver iron, but little effect on hemoglobin, hematocrit, transferrin saturation, or plasma iron. Against this backdrop of subclinical iron deficiency, curcumin exerted profound 2 effects on systemic iron, inducing a dose-dependent decline in hematocrit, hemoglobin, serum iron, and transferrin saturation, the appearance of microcytic anisocytotic red blood cells, and decreases in spleen and liver iron content. Curcumin repressed synthesis of hepcidin, a peptide that plays a central role in regulation of systemic iron balance. These results demonstrate that curcumin has the potential to affect systemic iron metabolism, particularly in a setting of subclinical iron deficiency. This may affect the use of curcumin in patients with marginal iron stores or those exhibiting the anemia of cancer and chronic disease. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? Related Article in Blood Online: Ironing out complementary medicine Robert T. Means, Jr Blood 2009 113: 270-271. [Full Text] [PDF]

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