Iron overloading inhibits endochondral ossification.

The development of bone disease in patients with chronic renal failure is well known. Renal patients frequently suffer anemia and iron oral therapy and/or transfusions are used to treat them. Recent findings show that iron could be a factor that provokes bone lesions but the alterations it causes are not well known. The aim of this work was to study the effect of iron intoxication on endochondral ossification, a recognized model for bone growth evaluation. Male Wistar rats weighing 250-300 g were used. They received 88 mg of dextran-iron per day intraperitoneally during 34 days. The experimental and control groups were killed on day 34. A histomorphometric study of the endochondral plate was performed on histologic sections of tibiae. The results obtained show that iron overloading inhibits endochondral ossification.