Iron in respiratory disease – friend or foe?

Iron in respiratory disease – friend or foe? 

Speaker: Dr Nick Talbot, University of Oxford

At a cellular level, iron plays a fundamental role in oxygen homeostasis. There is now emerging evidence that iron availability also influences responses to hypoxia at a systemic level, particularly in the pulmonary circulation. In healthy volunteers, pulmonary vasoconstriction during hypoxia is enhanced by iron deficiency and inhibited by iron supplementation. These findings may have important implications for patients with chronic lung disease. On the one hand, correction of iron deficiency may offer significant cardiovascular benefits. On the other, iron deficiency may represent an evolutionary adaptation that protects against respiratory infection, by reducing the availability of iron to invading microorganisms. This lecture will take a ‘bench to bedside’ tour through recent and future research in this area.

Seminar organised by Dr Federico Formenti