The molecular formula and proposed structure of the iron-dextran complex, imferon.

The first iron-dextran complex was discovered in 1953, when we attempted to synthesize an analog of ferritin, by substituting polysaccharide for its protein shell. This new complex soon became the most widely used parental therapy for hypochromic anemia in humans. No molecular formula has been proposed, but Cox has attributed an outline structure to it. The present article proposes a structure greatly different from the Cox model, by having a polynuclear beta-ferric oxyhydroxide core, closely similar or identical to Akaganeite, chelated firmly by an encircling framework of dextran gluconic acid chains and surrounded by a removable outer sheath of colloidal dextran gluconic acid. The molecular weight of the iron-dextran core molecule, including its chelated framework, has been determined by gel filtration and analysis and its molecular formula (1.3) calculated. Also, these new data and existing electron photomicrographic, X-ray diffraction and crystallographic studies, have enabled a molecular weight, formula, and model structure to be proposed for its complex (2), which includes the outer sheath. The 480 iron atoms in both the core molecule and its sheathed complex are close to the number calculated from the core's unit cell dimensions and volume. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 93:1838-1846, 2004