- Joined
- Apr 7, 2016
It apparently does happen: She claims to have been born with thalasseamia which is an inherited blood disorder.But when you have repeated blood transfusions they test your blood all the time to make sure you don't get iron overload. I'm suspicious, too much time in certain other threads maybe.
"The liver plays a central role in iron homeostasis. In addition to iron released from transfused red cells, an enhanced rate of gastrointestinal iron absorption has been suggested. This excess iron is initially confined to the Kupffer cells but when transfusion requirements produce massive iron overload, spillover to hepatic parenchyma cells quickly occurs, with the risk of late development of fibrosis and cirrhosis. In patients with β-thalassaemia, in absence of co-factors, the threshold hepatic iron concentration for the development of fibrosis is about 16 mg/g dry weight liver (Angelucci, 2002). Clinical studies suggest a relationship between hepatic iron concentration and the development of iron-induced hepatotoxicity. "
about Kupffer cells: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17105582/