HAMP and Tangier disease: Although in severely affected patients organ iron overload develops because of frequent RBC transfusions, in individuals with β-thalassemia who are not regularly transfused, the mechanisms responsible for increased iron absorption (i.e. insufficiently elevated hepcidin expression), along with chronic hemolysis, lead to progressive tissue iron deposition and toxicity, requiring even in these cases the use of iron chelators to prevent significant morbidity and mortality (Kattamis et al., 2022; Musallam et al., 2021).