the iron network have been recently described [@Chifman2012Core; @Mobilia2012], yet these include only a few components of the iron network. The model from Chifman [*et al.*]{} suggests that the dynamics of this iron network is stable [@Chifman2012Core]. Large-scale models of the metabolism of the hepatocyte [@Gille2010; @Krauss2012] and a generic human metabolism stoichiometric model [@Thiele2013] have also been published, but these contain only four reactions relating to iron metabolism. While they include iron transport, the receptors are not considered, and regulatory details are absent altogether.

Existing models are therefore at two extremes of detail: very specific and very generic — but to address questions about hepatic iron regulation, what is desirable is a model that balances coverage and detail. This is the aim of the present work. One of the problems of modelling iron metabolism quantitatively and in detail arises from the lack of parameter values for many interactions. Recently, several of those parameters have been described in the literature (Table \[tab:reaction\_parameters\]), particularly using technologies like surface plasmon resonance. This has enabled us to construct a detailed mechanistic kinetic model of human hepatocyte iron metabolism. The model has been validated by being able to reproduce data from several disease conditions 