SKIN CLEARANCE OF IRON IN NORMAL AND IRON DEFICIENT SUBJECTS

SUMMARY.— 59Fe‐ferric citrate was injected into the skin of 23, normal subjects and 6 iron deficient patients. Iron clearance, measured by external scintillation counting, could be resolved into 3 exponential components. The first, rapid component resulted from the removal of unbound iron by the blood stream. A lymphatic component, t1/2 23·9 hr., accounted for; the clearance of two‐thirds of the transferrin bound iron from the skin of normal subjects; the remaining one‐third was taken up by the epidermal cells arid cleared only slowly (t1/2 67 days) from the injection site; This pattern was not altered by binding the iron to plasma before injection but in the anaemic iron, deficient patients over half of the transferrin bound iron was taken up by the cells. The possible causes of the increase in the epidermal component in iron deficiency are discussed.