 The shared phenotype between the two strains suggests that intestinal hephaestin plays an important role in maintaining whole-body iron homeostasis.However, since both strains were viable, it is likely that hephaestin is not essential and other compensatory mechanisms exist to keep these mice alive.In addition to the transport of iron from the intestine and into the circulation, ferroxidases also seem to play an important role in facilitating iron export from retinal cells.