Protein That Allows Safe Recycling of Iron From Old Red Blood Cells Identified, University of Maryland, Harvard Medical School, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and University of Utah School of Medicine Study

Humans survive by constantly recycling iron, a metal that is an essential component of red blood cells, but which is toxic outside of those cells. More than 90 percent of the iron in an adult human’s 25 trillion life-sustaining red blood cells is recycled from worn-out cells.