Iron biomarkers predict peripheral artery disease in females.

Background And Aim: Iron overload has been proposed as a risk factor for atherosclerosis, but the available data are controversial. Here, we investigated whether iron status shows sex-specific associations with peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Methods: Using two different analytical approaches (machine-learning and logistic regression), we studied the association between blood iron biomarkers and PAD in 368 individuals from the Heidelberg Study on Diabetes and Complications (HEIST-DiC) and in 5101 individuals from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999-2004).

Repression of the iron exporter ferroportin may contribute to hepatocyte iron overload in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: Hyperferremia and hyperferritinemia are observed in patients and disease models of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Likewise, patients with genetic iron overload diseases develop diabetes, suggesting a tight link between iron metabolism and diabetes. The liver controls systemic iron homeostasis and is a central organ for T2DM.