Hemosiderosis refers to the “excessive iron accumulation due to transfusion, medication, dietary overload, and other reasons. May produce the same pathologic changes as hereditary hemochromatosis”.(Web,1)
Genetic Hemosiderosis Types
Bantu Siderosis
Bantusiderosis, or African iron overload is, as the name implies, a type of hemosiderosis found mostly in Africa. Bantusiderosis affects up to ten percent of the population in some rural African communities.
Like other forms of genetic hemosiderosis, Bantusiderosis causes organ damage. Bantusiderosis is often associated with liver cirrhosis, and appears to be linked to higher than normal rates of infection and tuberculosis. Heart disease and diabetes may also result from iron overload, but they're less common complications than cirrhosis.
Bantusiderosis appears to be a genetic hemosiderosis, but the genetic mutation causing African iron overload has yet to be determined. Doctors know that individuals with Bantusiderosis lack the HFE gene mutations associated with the most common genetic iron overload disorder, hemochromatosis.
The genetic marker that causes Bantusiderosis increases the risk of iron overload, especially when excessive dietary iron is consumed. The cause of Bantusiderosis was once thought to be over consumption of a traditional African beer made in non-galvanized steel drums.
Not all beer drinkers show symptoms of African iron overload, however, and cases of Bantusiderosis also occur in non-beer drinkers. This led researchers to conclude that Bantusiderosis was a genetic hemosiderosis.
Iron overload without the genetic markers for hemochromatosis can occur in African Americans. This has led to speculation that the genetic markers responsible for Bantusiderosis may be present in the African American population.
Ferroportin Disease
Ferroportin disease is the most common genetic hemosiderosis disease that does not involve the HFE mutations associated with hemochromatosis. Ferroportin disease is similar in nature to Bantusiderosis. Iron overload due to ferroportin disease is caused by mutations in the gene responsible for ferroportin production, a protein that exports iron from body cells...............
