Haemoglobin turnover

Most of the iron in the body is in the form of haemoglobin in red blood cells and myoglobin in muscle. The remainder is in the liver, spleen and other tissues. Haemoglobin is essential for the proper functioning of every organ and tissue of the body. Iron has a rapid turnover rate in the chicken therefore, it must be provided in a highly available form in the diet on a daily basis. Iron deficiency can result in microcytic, hypochromic anaemia in poultry. Any internal infection such as coccidiosis can also interfere with iron absorption and lead to a deficiency. 

In adults some 250-400 mg of bihmbin is produced daily 70-80% is derived from degradation of the haem moiety of haemoglobin, 20-25% is derived from the hepatic turnover of haem proteins, such as myoglobin, cytochromes and catalase. 

Erythrocytes are unusual compared with other tissues in that there is little turnover during the lifetime of the cell, and the proteins become degraded when the cell itself is degraded. In humans, erythrocytes have an average life of 120 days, whereas avian erythrocytes have an average life of 35 days. The principal protein in erythrocytes is haemoglobin. 

Recently this type of study has been undertaken in order to quantitate ineffective erythropoiesis in normal subjects [393] and in patients with a variety of haematological disorders [387]. In these investigations the incorporation of [ N]glycine into early labelled bilirubin and haemoglobin haem was measured. [ Cj Bilirubin clearance was used to estimate total bilirubin production rate [394], and hepatic haem turnover was calculated from the incorporation of a-amino [ N]laevulinic acid into early labelled bilirubin. The relative contribution of ineffective erythropoiesis in the production of anaemia found in these... 

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