An update on in vitro methods employed to assess iron bioavailability is presented. Solubility and dialyzability are not useful predictors of iron absorption, whereas Caco-2 cell models provide useful comparisons on the availability of iron from different sources. Strengths and weaknesses of in vitro approaches are briefly described, including the need to characterize Caco-2 cells in order to interpret results correctly. Further developments are required to refine Caco-2 model systems, including optimization and standardization of methods.
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Fairweather‐Tait et al. (2007) studied this question.