Iron deficiency increases DNA-ploidy of megakaryocytic cells and consecutive platelet counts in IBD

Aims: Iron deficiency (ID) is common in IBD affecting up to 90% of patients (Kulnigg S, APT 2006). Additionally, thrombocytosis is a frequent clinical observation that can be reversed by intravenous iron therapy (Gasche C, DDW 2002). Similar to all mammalian cells, the proliferation of megakaryocytic progenitor cells decreases upon ID through cell cycle arrest in G1 (Kulnigg S, DDW 2006), which is inconsistent with the ID-associated increase in platelet counts. Here we show that thrombocytosis also decreases with oral iron replacement, and hypothesize that the increase in platelet counts is rather due to a chang…