also be picking up these isoferritins thus not a true reflection of iron storage status. studies reveal that a transferrin saturation (serum iron concentration ÷ total iron binding capacity) over 60 percent in men and over 50 percent in women identified the presence of an abnormality in iron metabolism (hereditary hemochromatosis, heterozygotes, and homozygotes) with approximately 95 percent accuracy. this finding helps in the early diagnosis of hereditary hemochromatosis, especially while serum ferritin still remains low. the retained iron in hereditary hemochromatosis is primarily deposited in parenchymal cells, with reticuloendothelial cell accumulation occurring very late in the disease. this is in contrast to transfusional iron overload in which iron deposition occurs first in the reticuloendothelial cells and then in parenchymal cells. this explains why ferritin levels remain relative low in hereditary hemochromatosis, while transferrin saturation is high. in chronic liver diseases hematological abnormalities often associate with chronic liver diseases. both iron overload and iron deficient anemia have been reported in patients with liver cirrhosis. the former is mainly due to reduced hepcidin level caused by the decreased synthetic capacity of the liver, while the latter is due to acute and chronic bleeding caused by portal hypertension. inflammation is also present in patients with advanced chronic liver disease. as a consequence, elevated hepatic and serum ferritin levels are consistently reported in chronic liver diseases. studies showed association between high serum ferritin levels and increased risk of short-term mortality in cirrhotic patients with acute decompensation and acute-on-chronic liver failure. an other study found association between high serum ferritin levels and increased risk of long-term mortality in compensated and stable decompensated cirrhotic patients. the same study demonstrated that increased serum ferritin levels could predict the development of bacterial infection in stable decompensated cirrhotic patients, while in compensated cirrhotic patients the appearance of the very first acute decompensation episode showed higher incidence in patients with low serum ferritin levels. this latter finding was explaind by the association between chronic bleeding and increased portal pressure. applications ferritin is used in materials science as a precursor in making iron nanoparticles for carbon nanotube growth by chemical vapor deposition. cavities formed by ferritin and mini-ferritins (dps) proteins have been successfully used as the reaction chamber for the fabrication of metal nanoparticles (nps). protein shells served as a template to restrain particle growth and as a coating to prevent coagulation/aggregation between nps. using various sizes of protein shells, various sizes of nps can be easily synthesized for chemical, physical and bio-medical applications. experimental covid-19 vaccines have been produced that display the spike protein's receptor binding domain on the surface of ferritin nanoparticles. notes the primary sequence of human ferritin is mttastsqvr qnyhqdseaa inrqinlely asyvylsmsy yfdrddvalk nfakyflhqs heerehaekl mklqnqrggr iflqdikkpd cddwesglna mecalhlekn vnqsllefps pispspscwh hyttnrpqpq hhllrprrrk rphsiptpil ifrsp.