Iron regulation question, USMLEworld wrong??

[Disinence2]

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Hey,

So I was doing some World Questions and was pretty confused by one.

The question basically asked where regulation of Iron Homeostasis occurs.

The correct answer was intestinal epithelium and I think that's the obvious choice, However I think a "more correct" answer would be the liver due to the synthesis of hepcidin which basically tells the intestinal cell what to do.

Anyone else know of errors in UWorld questions?

 

[joeylux]

Hey,

So I was doing some World Questions and was pretty confused by one.

The question basically asked where regulation of Iron Homeostasis occurs.

The correct answer was intestinal epithelium and I think that's the obvious choice, However I think a "more correct" answer would be the liver due to the synthesis of hepcidin which basically tells the intestinal cell what to do.

Anyone else know of errors in UWorld questions?

I'm just going off the top of my head here so this may be right it may not be. Hepcidin is an evolutionary tool that we've developed to keep iron away from bacteria, etc, so in that sense it's an acute phase reactant to any state of inflammation that's spitting out a lot of IL-1 and other cytokines. As seen in hemochomatosis, however, how much iron we actually take up is regulated by intestinal epithelial cells via a basolateral receptor (that when screwy, doesn't relay the message to the intestinal epithelial cells that, thanks but no thanks, we don't need any more iron = hemochromatosis). I realize I'm skipping some details but the main point is that hepcidin is a means to hold onto iron so that nasty bugs to get it, it's by no means our primary mechanism of regulating iron stores.

 

[SeminoleFan3]

For what it's worth, Wiki says you're right 🙂

 

[silas2642]

Hey,

So I was doing some World Questions and was pretty confused by one.

The question basically asked where regulation of Iron Homeostasis occurs.

The correct answer was intestinal epithelium and I think that's the obvious choice, However I think a "more correct" answer would be the liver due to the synthesis of hepcidin which basically tells the intestinal cell what to do.

Anyone else know of errors in UWorld questions?

Today, one of the "wrong" answers said that glucagon stimulates insulin.

 

[SeminoleFan3]

Today, one of the "wrong" answers said that glucagon stimulates insulin.

Glucagon does stimulate insulin according to BRS phys (pg 257).

 

[Mr. Tee]

Hey,

So I was doing some World Questions and was pretty confused by one.

The question basically asked where regulation of Iron Homeostasis occurs.

The correct answer was intestinal epithelium and I think that's the obvious choice, However I think a "more correct" answer would be the liver due to the synthesis of hepcidin which basically tells the intestinal cell what to do.

Anyone else know of errors in UWorld questions?

Location of regulation is still in the intestinal epithelium...that's where hepcidin works at...not an error.

 

[neil100]

Location of regulation is still in the intestinal epithelium...that's where hepcidin works at...not an error.

👍

Think of the pathophysiology of hemochromatosis. Think about what happens when someone has a Hb chain defect. The intestinal cells in the epithelium of duodenum increase absorption of iron in the latter case.

The better answer is intestinal epithelium vs. hepcidin. hepcidin is more of a specific type of an answer choice.

 

[Cirrus83]

Today, one of the "wrong" answers said that glucagon stimulates insulin.

This is correct, since the glucagon stimulates the liver to release glucose, but other cells need the insulin to tell them to uptake the glucose that's been released into the bloodstream. Thus glucagon also stimulates an appropriate release of insulin =)

 

[perilou]

I'm thinking that's why he put wrong in quotations.