Dietary and neonatal hemochromatosis

Experimentally, however, hepatic iron overload has been described in animals fed high iron content diets. The results closest to humans are from a study in the common marmoset, Callithrix jacus [13]. In a group of seven marmosets fed a high iron content diet for 1 year, four deaths occurred, as opposed to one death in the group fed a low iron diet (Table 13-2). 

This study is mentioned just to illustrate the potential seriousness of the clinical condition of provoked iron overload. A similar illustration comes from the life-threatening situations associated with transfusional iron overload seen in fi-thalassemia major patients [14]. A more dramatic illustration of the incompatibility of life with iron overload stems from the studies of rare cases of neonatal hemochromatosis. In a review of 25 published cases, survival ranged from minutes after birth to 9 days, with a mean of 2.7 days [15]. 

All the above examples constitute rare illustrations of the selective c zjadvantage of iron overload. The role of the immunological system in such cases has not been documented, however. 

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