Sight and Life Magazine 1/2011

SIGHT AND LIFE | VOL. 25 (1) | 2011 OPINION 2 5757of protein folding. Injecting the missing dietary iron quantitiesparenterally did not re-induce ileal Crohn symptoms, showingthat the underlying pathology depends on luminal iron concentrations.Iron also mutually interacts with immunological responsesin multiple ways, as illustrated in Crohn’s disease in a correspondingcomment. 6 All these events illustrate that the role of iron in theunderlying pathology is extensively modulated by a considerablenumber of interfering processes.With the wide application of powerful genetic and biochemicaltools, the number of examples of such interactions is likelyto expand exponentially in the near future. Their clinical implicationswill serve to judge the relevance of such novel modulatingeffects. Some of these may be academic in nature, but othersmay yield ground-breaking new therapeutic principles or impulsesfor public health and nutrition. We hope that Sight andLife will continue to report on such developments.Correspondence: Klaus Schuemann, Zentralinstitut fürErnährung und Lebensmittelwissenschaft, Technische UniversitätMünchen,Gregor-Mendelstr 2, D-85350 Freising-Weihenstephan,Germany E-mail: kschuemann@schuemann-muc.deReferences01. Nairz M, Schroll A, Sonnweber T et al. The struggle for iron – a metalat the host-pathogen interface. Cell Microbiol 2010;12:1691–702.02. Hentze MW, Muckenthaler MU, Galy B et al. Two to tango: regulationof mammalian iron metabolism. Cell 2010;142:24–38.03. Sazawal S, Black RE, Ramsan M et al. Effects of routine prophylacticsupplementation with iron and folic acid on admission to hospitaland mortality in preschool children in a high malaria transmissionsetting: community-based, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.Lancet 2006;367:133–43.04. Orozco M, Solomons NW, Schümann K et al. Antioxidant-rich oralsupplements attenuate the effects of oral iron on in situ oxidationsusceptibility of human feces. J Nutr 2010;149:1105–10.05. Werner T, Wagner SJ, Martinez I et al. Depletion of dietary ironprevents Crohn’s disease-like ileitis affecting epithelial stressrepression and the gut microbial ecology. Gut 2010, on line,10.1136/gut.2010.216929. February 2011.06. Weiss G. Iron in the inflamed gut: another pro-inflammatory hit?Gut 2010, on line, 10.1136/gut 2010 229047. February 2011.