Kell, Douglas B.Pretorius, Etheresia2016-07-042016-07-042015Pretorius, E & Kell, DB 2015, 'Why does serum contain ferritin?', BMJ, vol. 351, h3692, pp. 1-3.0959-8138 (print)1756-1833 (online)http://hdl.handle.net/2263/53616In a recent article, Koperdanova and Cullis 1 rehearsed the various interpretations of raised serum ferritin levels. In fact the most interesting question 2 is why does ferritin appear in serum at all? All modern network models of iron metabolism (e.g. 3-7) have iron being passed from the gut to peripheral cells via blood (serum) bound to transferrin, a well-established iron-transporting molecule that is present in serum at ca 0.6-3.3 g.L-1 8. By contrast, ferritin is an intracellular iron storage compound 3 5 7; its normal range for serum is at levels 10,000-100,000 times lower than that for transferrin, being from very small levels to up to 300 μg.L-1 in men and slightly lower in women 2.enThis is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.FerritinApoptosisIron dysregulationInflammationChronic diseasesAtopobiosisArticle