The Relationship between Mucosal Iron and Iron Absorption in the Guinea Pig

The non‐haeme iron content of intestinal mucosa has been proposed as responsible for controlling iron absorption. In these experiments guinea pigs bled to produce a six‐fold increase in iron absorption showed no change in mucosal non‐haeme iron content. Earlier conflicting results may be partially explained by the inclusion of a fraction of the haemoglobin iron when using the trichloroacetic acid method for extracting ‘non‐haeme’ iron. It is suggested that the iron content of intestinal mucosa cannot be assigned a general role in regulating iron absorption.