40 American Society of Hematology Iron Deficiency and Overload

In the past seven years numerous genes that influence iron homeostasis have been discovered. Dr. Beutler provides a brief overview of these genes, genes that encode HFE, DMT-1, ferroportin, transferrin receptor 2, hephaestin, and hepcidin to lay the groundwork for a discussion of the various clinical forms of iron storage disease and how they differ from one another. In Section I, Dr. Beutler also discusses the types of hemochromatosis that exist as acquired and as hereditary forms. Acquired hemochromato-sis occurs in patients with marrow failure, particu-larly when there is active ineffective erythropoie-sis. Hereditary hemochromatosis is most com-monly due to mutations in the HLA-linked HF