Fig 7. Simulation of transferrin treatment on thalassemia and wild type.

Daily injections of apo-transferrin were simulated by increasing apo-transferrin plasma concentration by 102 μM daily for a period of 60 days (shaded area). This procedure is applied both to the wild type model (dashed lines) and to the thalassemia major model (solid lines). The thalassemia major model is initialized by reducing parameter kInBM to 25% WT value, and kRBCSpleen increased to 400% WT value, then a time course of 365 days is run prior to the application of the transferrin treatment. A–total transferrin; B–transferrin saturation; C–NTBI concentration; D–liver iron concentration; E–RBC iron concentration; F–Spleen iron concentration; G–hepcidin concentration; H–EPO concentration.