Study of the health effects of long-term iron use with a focus on impaired blood cell differentiation.

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K07043
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 47030:Pharmaceutical hygiene and biochemistry-related
• Research Institution: Kanazawa University (2022); University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (2020-2021)
• Principal Investigator: Kitagawa Kyoko 金沢大学, がん進展制御研究所, 研究協力員 (20299605)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 辻 真弓 産業医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (40457601)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 鉄剤 / 貧血

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In our previous studies, we observed that various hematopoietic cells transiently express transferrin receptors in their progenitor cells early in the differentiation process. Therefore, excess of its ligand, iron, may lead to signal overload and prevent the normal differentiation of blood progenitor cells.
We investigated whether there is a relationship between the duration of iron use and the development of differentiation defects in pregnant women. It was found that the long-term iron use group tended to have lower platelet counts than the other groups, moreover, anemia showed no tendency to improve. This suggests that long-term iron use may be impairing megakaryocyte differentiation and maturation, and that anemia may persist in some groups for reasons other than insufficient iron supply.

Free Research Field

衛生学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

大規模アンケート調査より、妊婦は鉄剤処方される割合が42%と非常に高いことが明らかとなり、長期間の鉄剤摂取に健康リスクがあるか否か、科学的に検証することの社会的意義は大きい。今回の結果は血小板減少のリスクを示唆し、血液検査値の把握が重要であると考えられた。
ただし予想外に、長期使用群に分類された妊婦は0.2％未満とごくわずかで、処方箋通りに服用されていない例が大半を占めていることが明らかとなった。この事実を医療者が把握していないことに対する警鐘を鳴らすことも、適切な医療行為の推進のためには重要であると考えられた。