scholarly journals Regulation of cellular iron metabolism

2011 ◽  
Vol 434 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Wang ◽  
Kostas Pantopoulos

Iron is an essential but potentially hazardous biometal. Mammalian cells require sufficient amounts of iron to satisfy metabolic needs or to accomplish specialized functions. Iron is delivered to tissues by circulating transferrin, a transporter that captures iron released into the plasma mainly from intestinal enterocytes or reticuloendothelial macrophages. The binding of iron-laden transferrin to the cell-surface transferrin receptor 1 results in endocytosis and uptake of the metal cargo. Internalized iron is transported to mitochondria for the synthesis of haem or iron–sulfur clusters, which are integral parts of several metalloproteins, and excess iron is stored and detoxified in cytosolic ferritin. Iron metabolism is controlled at different levels and by diverse mechanisms. The present review summarizes basic concepts of iron transport, use and storage and focuses on the IRE (iron-responsive element)/IRP (iron-regulatory protein) system, a well known post-transcriptional regulatory circuit that not only maintains iron homoeostasis in various cell types, but also contributes to systemic iron balance.

Blood ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 85 (10) ◽  
pp. 2962-2966 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Oria ◽  
L Sanchez ◽  
T Houston ◽  
MW Hentze ◽  
FY Liew ◽  
...  

Nitric oxide (NO) is known to increase the affinity of the intracellular iron-regulatory protein (IRP) for iron-response elements (IREs) in transferrin receptor and ferritin mRNAs, suggesting that it may act as a regulator of cellular iron metabolism. In this study, exogenous NO produced by adding the NO-generator S-nitroso-N-acetyl penicillamine gave a dose-dependent upregulation of transferrin receptor expression by K562 erythroleukemia cells and increased levels of transferrin receptor mRNA. NO did not affect the affinity of transferrin binding by the transferrin receptor. NO alone did not alter intracellular ferritin levels, but it did abrogate the inhibitory effect of the iron chelator desferrioxamine and potentiated the stimulatory effect of additional iron. NO also caused some increase in ferritin mRNA levels, which might mask any IRP-/IRE-mediated inhibitory effect of NO on ferritin translation. Although NO did not affect net iron uptake, it increased release of iron from K562 cells pulsed previously with 59Fe, and subcellular fractionation showed that it also increased the proportion of intracellular iron bound to ferritin. These findings provide direct evidence that NO can affect cellular iron metabolism and suggest that NO produced in vivo by activated bone marrow macrophages might affect erythropoiesis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 1211-1225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wulin Aerbajinai ◽  
Manik C. Ghosh ◽  
Jie Liu ◽  
Chutima Kumkhaek ◽  
Jianqing Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract In macrophages, cellular iron metabolism status is tightly integrated with macrophage phenotype and associated with mitochondrial function. However, how molecular events regulate mitochondrial activity to integrate regulation of iron metabolism and macrophage phenotype remains unclear. Here, we explored the important role of the actin-regulatory protein glia maturation factor-γ (GMFG) in the regulation of cellular iron metabolism and macrophage phenotype. We found that GMFG was downregulated in murine macrophages by exposure to iron and hydrogen peroxide. GMFG knockdown altered the expression of iron metabolism proteins and increased iron levels in murine macrophages and concomitantly promoted their polarization toward an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype. GMFG-knockdown macrophages exhibited moderately increased levels of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS), which were accompanied by decreased expression of some mitochondrial respiration chain components, including the iron-sulfur cluster assembly scaffold protein ISCU as well as the antioxidant enzymes SOD1 and SOD2. Importantly, treatment of GMFG-knockdown macrophages with the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine reversed the altered expression of iron metabolism proteins and significantly inhibited the enhanced gene expression of M2 macrophage markers, suggesting that mtROS is mechanistically linked to cellular iron metabolism and macrophage phenotype. Finally, GMFG interacted with the mitochondrial membrane ATPase ATAD3A, suggesting that GMFG knockdown–induced mtROS production might be attributed to alteration of mitochondrial function in macrophages. Our findings suggest that GMFG is an important regulator in cellular iron metabolism and macrophage phenotype and could be a novel therapeutic target for modulating macrophage function in immune and metabolic disorders.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitri Pervouchine ◽  
Sarah Djebali ◽  
Alessandra Breschi ◽  
Carrie A Davis ◽  
Pablo Prieto Barja ◽  
...  

We characterized by RNA-seq the transcriptional profiles of a large and heterogeneous collection of mouse tissues, augmenting the mouse transcriptome with thousands of novel transcript candidates. Comparison with transcriptome profiles obtained in human cell lines reveals substantial conservation of transcriptional programs, and uncovers a distinct class of genes with levels of expression across cell types and species, that have been constrained early in vertebrate evolution. This core set of genes capture a substantial and constant fraction of the transcriptional output of mammalian cells, and participates in basic functional and structural housekeeping processes common to all cell types. Perturbation of these constrained genes is associated with significant phenotypes including embryonic lethality and cancer. Evolutionary constraint in gene expression levels is not reflected in the conservation of the genomic sequences, but it is associated with strong and conserved epigenetic marking, as well as to a characteristic post-transcriptional regulatory program in which sub-cellular localization and alternative splicing play comparatively large roles.


Blood ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 680-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Weiss ◽  
Tracey Houston ◽  
Stefan Kastner ◽  
Karin Jöhrer ◽  
Kurt Grünewald ◽  
...  

Abstract Erythropoietin (Epo) is the central regulator of red blood cell production and acts primarily by inducing proliferation and differentiation of erythroid progenitor cells. Because a sufficient supply of iron is a prerequisite for erythroid proliferation and hemoglobin synthesis, we have investigated whether Epo can regulate cellular iron metabolism. We present here a novel biologic function of Epo, namely as a potential modulator of cellular iron homeostasis. We show that, in human (K562) and murine erythroleukemic cells (MEL), Epo enhances the binding affinity of iron-regulatory protein (IRP)-1, the central regulator of cellular iron metabolism, to specific RNA stem-loop structures, known as iron-responsive elements (IREs). Activation of IRP-1 by Epo is associated with a marked increase in transferrin receptor (trf-rec) mRNA levels in K562 and MEL, enhanced cell surface expression of trf-recs, and increased uptake of iron into cells. These findings are in agreement with the well-established mechanism whereby high-affinity binding of IRPs to IREs stabilizes trf-rec mRNA by protecting it from degradation by a specific RNase. The effects of Epo on IRE-binding of IRPs were not observed in human myelomonocytic cells (THP-1), which indicates that this response to Epo is not a general mechanism observed in all cells but is likely to be erythroid-specific. Our results provide evidence for a direct functional connection between Epo biology and iron metabolism by which Epo increases iron uptake into erythroid progenitor cells via posttranscriptional induction of trf-rec expression. Our data suggest that sequential administration of Epo and iron might improve the response to Epo therapy in some anemias.


2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 1895-1903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Haunhorst ◽  
Eva-Maria Hanschmann ◽  
Lars Bräutigam ◽  
Oliver Stehling ◽  
Bastian Hoffmann ◽  
...  

The mechanisms by which eukaryotic cells handle and distribute the essential micronutrient iron within the cytosol and other cellular compartments are only beginning to emerge. The yeast monothiol multidomain glutaredoxins (Grx) 3 and 4 are essential for both transcriptional iron regulation and intracellular iron distribution. Despite the fact that the mechanisms of iron metabolism differ drastically in fungi and higher eukaryotes, the glutaredoxins are conserved, yet their precise function in vertebrates has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate a crucial role of the vertebrate-specific monothiol multidomain Grx3 (PICOT) in cellular iron homeostasis. During zebrafish embryonic development, depletion of Grx3 severely impairs the maturation of hemoglobin, the major iron-consuming process. Silencing of human Grx3 expression in HeLa cells decreases the activities of several cytosolic Fe/S proteins, for example, iron-regulatory protein 1, a major component of posttranscriptional iron regulation. As a consequence, Grx3-depleted cells show decreased levels of ferritin and increased levels of transferrin receptor, features characteristic of cellular iron starvation. Apparently, Grx3-deficient cells are unable to efficiently use iron, despite unimpaired cellular iron uptake. These data suggest an evolutionarily conserved role of cytosolic monothiol multidomain glutaredoxins in cellular iron metabolism pathways, including the biogenesis of Fe/S proteins and hemoglobin maturation.


Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 118 (22) ◽  
pp. e168-e179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayka Sanchez ◽  
Bruno Galy ◽  
Bjoern Schwanhaeusser ◽  
Jonathon Blake ◽  
Tomi Bähr-Ivacevic ◽  
...  

Abstract Iron regulatory proteins (IRPs) 1 and 2 are RNA-binding proteins that control cellular iron metabolism by binding to conserved RNA motifs called iron-responsive elements (IREs). The currently known IRP-binding mRNAs encode proteins involved in iron uptake, storage, and release as well as heme synthesis. To systematically define the IRE/IRP regulatory network on a transcriptome-wide scale, IRP1/IRE and IRP2/IRE messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes were immunoselected, and the mRNA composition was determined using microarrays. We identify 35 novel mRNAs that bind both IRP1 and IRP2, and we also report for the first time cellular mRNAs with exclusive specificity for IRP1 or IRP2. To further explore cellular iron metabolism at a system-wide level, we undertook proteomic analysis by pulsed stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture in an iron-modulated mouse hepatic cell line and in bone marrow-derived macrophages from IRP1- and IRP2-deficient mice. This work investigates cellular iron metabolism in unprecedented depth and defines a wide network of mRNAs and proteins with iron-dependent regulation, IRP-dependent regulation, or both.


eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiang-Chun Chang ◽  
Jason Solomon Shapiro ◽  
Xinghang Jiang ◽  
Grant Senyei ◽  
Teruki Sato ◽  
...  

Chronic loss of Augmenter of Liver Regeneration (ALR) results in mitochondrial myopathy with cataracts, however, the mechanism for this disorder remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that loss of ALR, a principal component of the MIA40/ALR protein import pathway, results in impaired cytosolic Fe/S cluster biogenesis in mammalian cells. Mechanistically, MIA40/ALR facilitates the mitochondrial import of ATP binding cassette (ABC)-B8, an inner mitochondrial membrane protein required for cytoplasmic Fe/S cluster maturation, through physical interaction with ABCB8. Downregulation of ALR impairs mitochondrial ABCB8 import, reduces cytoplasmic Fe/S cluster maturation, and increases cellular iron through the iron regulatory protein-iron response element system. Our finding provides a mechanistic link between MIA40/ALR import machinery and cytosolic Fe/S cluster maturation through the mitochondrial import of ABCB8, and offers a potential explanation for the pathology seen in patients with ALR mutations.


2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (17) ◽  
pp. 5517-5528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Stehling ◽  
Daili J. A. Netz ◽  
Brigitte Niggemeyer ◽  
Ralf Rösser ◽  
Richard S. Eisenstein ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The maturation of cytosolic iron-sulfur (Fe/S) proteins in mammalian cells requires components of the mitochondrial iron-sulfur cluster assembly and export machineries. Little is known about the cytosolic components that may facilitate the assembly process. Here, we identified the cytosolic soluble P-loop NTPase termed huNbp35 (also known as Nubp1) as an Fe/S protein, and we defined its role in the maturation of Fe/S proteins in HeLa cells. Depletion of huNbp35 by RNA interference decreased cell growth considerably, indicating its essential function. The deficiency in huNbp35 was associated with an impaired maturation of the cytosolic Fe/S proteins glutamine phosphoribosylpyrophosphate amidotransferase and iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1), while mitochondrial Fe/S proteins remained intact. Consequently, huNbp35 is specifically involved in the formation of extramitochondrial Fe/S proteins. The impaired maturation of IRP1 upon huNbp35 depletion had profound consequences for cellular iron metabolism, leading to decreased cellular H-ferritin, increased transferrin receptor levels, and higher transferrin uptake. These properties clearly distinguished huNbp35 from its yeast counterpart Nbp35, which is essential for cytosolic-nuclear Fe/S protein assembly but plays no role in iron regulation. huNbp35 formed a complex with its close homologue huCfd1 (also known as Nubp2) in vivo, suggesting the existence of a heteromeric P-loop NTPase complex that is required for both cytosolic Fe/S protein assembly and cellular iron homeostasis.


2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 4638-4651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Wang ◽  
Kostas Pantopoulos

ABSTRACT Iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1), a major posttranscriptional regulator of cellular iron and energy metabolism, is controlled by an iron-sulfur cluster switch. Cysteine-437 is critical for coordinating the cluster, and its replacement yields mutants that do not respond to iron perturbations and constitutively bind to cognate mRNA iron-responsive elements (IREs). The expression of IRP1C437S in cells has been associated with aberrations in iron homeostasis and toxicity. We have established clones of human lung (H1299) and breast (MCF7) cancer cells that express high levels of IRP1C437S in a tetracycline-inducible manner. As expected, IRP1C437S stabilizes transferrin receptor mRNA and inhibits translation of ferritin mRNA in both cell types by binding to their respective IREs. However, H1299 transfectants grown at high densities are able to overcome the IRP1C437S-mediated inhibition in ferritin synthesis. The mechanism involves neither alteration in ferritin mRNA levels nor utilization of alternative transcription start sites to eliminate the IRE or relocate it in less inhibitory downstream positions. The derepression of ferritin mRNA translation occurs under conditions where global protein synthesis appears to be impaired, as judged by a significant enrichment in the expression of the underphosphorylated form of the translational regulator 4E-BP1. Collectively, these data document an example where ferritin mRNA translation evades control of the IRE-IRP system. The physiological implications of this response are reflected in protection against iron-mediated toxicity, oxidative stress, and apoptosis.


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