Iron levels in human retina: sex difference and increase with age
Abstract
Oxidative stress is believed to be important in physiological aging and age-related diseases. Iron is a potent pro-oxidant implicated in several age-related diseases. While serum ferritin, as an estimate of body stores of iron, has been shown to increase with age, few studies have directly addressed the effect of age on human neural tissue iron levels. We used atomic absorption spectrophotometry to assess quantitatively iron levels within the eye structures, retina and retinal pigment epithelium/choroid of normal human eyes of various ages and of both sexes. We found that retinal iron increases with age, similar to serum ferritin levels. Women had more retinal iron than men at all ages, suggesting that there may be gender-specific influences on iron regulation.
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Retinal iron levels increase with age, iron is significantly implicated in AMD, and iron chelation may help to reverse the process.
“Retinal iron levels increase with age [1322], iron is significantly implicated in AMD [1323-1329], and iron chelation may help to reverse the process [1330].”
From Iron behaving badly: inappropriate iron chelation as a major contributor to the aetiology of vascular and other progressive inflammatory and degenerative diseases (2009) · cites this paper as [1322]
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- Authors
- Hahn, P., Ying, G.-S., Beard, J., & Dunaief, J. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dunaief, Joshua L.
- Venue
- NeuroReport
- Published
- 2006-11-27
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 17
- Pages
- 1803-1806
- ISSN
- 0959-4965 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2092355015
- Cited by
- 90
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 2.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroreport (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (EY 015240, R01EY015240)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Hematology › Iron Metabolism and Disorders
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Trace Elements in Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Ophthalmology › Retinal Diseases and Treatments
- Keywords
- retinal pigment epithelium, choroid, sex differences, oxidative stress, serum ferritin, aging, iron regulation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Iron, Male, Middle Aged, Regression Analysis, Retina, Sex Characteristics, Spectrophotometry, Atomic
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