Fig. 1

Alternations of iron metabolism in leukemia at systemic and cellular levels. a The systematic iron pool and serum ferritin levels are increased which is aggravated by multiple red-blood-cell transfusions. Hepcidin is induced to block the delivery of iron into the circulation from enterocytes, macrophages and some other cells. b Leukemia cells show increased iron uptake and decreased iron efflux, leading to elevated cellular iron levels. Proteins related to iron uptake such as TfR1, TfR2 and STEAP1 are overexpressed and absorption of NTBI is increased. However, the expression of iron export protein FPN1 is decreased. HFE or c-MYC gene variants are also associated with elevated intracellular iron levels in leukemia cells