Question

The storage iron in the body is almost in form of
(a) Fe++
(b) Fe+++
(c) Hemosiderin
(d) Ferritin

Answer 1

Hint: Ferritin concentration together with that of hemosiderin in the body is how iron is stored. They store iron in a soluble form and are present primarily in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow.

Complete answer: Iron is an extremely essential component of every living organism.
It is often a growth limiting factor in the environment also. Even various cellular mechanisms have evolved to capture iron from the environment in biologically useful forms. In humans, iron mainly exists in complex forms bound to protein as heme compounds (hemoglobin or myoglobin), heme enzymes, or non heme compounds (flavin-iron enzymes, transferring, and ferritin).
The body highly requires iron for the synthesis of its oxygen transport proteins, majorly hemoglobin and myoglobin, and additionally for the formation of heme enzymes and other iron-containing enzymes involved in electron transfer and redox reactions. Iron is delivered to all tissues by circulating transferrin, a transporter that captures iron released into the plasma mainly from intestinal enterocytes.

The binding of iron-laden transferrin to the cell-surface transferrin receptor (TfR) 1 results in endocytosis and eventually in the uptake of the metal. Internalized iron is transported to mitochondria for the synthesis of heme or iron-sulfur clusters, which are important parts of several metalloproteins, and excess iron is stored and detoxified in cytosolic ferritin.
So, the correct answer is ‘Ferritin’.
Note: Apart from iron losses due to regular menstruation, other bleeding injuries or pregnancy periods, iron is highly conserved and not readily lost from the body. There are some losses as well though but these losses are estimated to be very limited.