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Walk the Even Hospital Database by book and chapter — the raw source passages that ground Ask, DDx, and the rest.
1 passage
Iron is vital for several metabolic pathways and physiological processes.[1] Maintaining iron homeostasis is essential, as both deficiency and excess can be harmful to the human body. Transferrin is a blood plasma glycoprotein that plays a central role in iron metabolism by delivering ferric ions to various tissues, such as the liver, spleen, and bone marrow. Transferrin has a high affinity for ferric iron; therefore, there is little free iron in the body as transferrin binds almost all plasma iron. Transferrin serves as the most critical ferric iron pool in the body and is an essential biochemical marker for determining body iron status.