A 55-year-old African Canadian man with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and alcohol abuse presented with diabetic ketoacidosis. Progressive cognitive decline over the previous 5 years resulted in long-term care placement. Aside from pigmentary retinopathy, general examination was unremarkable. MRI demonstrated iron accumulation in the brain (figure 1) and liver (figure 2A). Ceruloplasmin, a...

The review outlines the experimental studies that have led to the current understanding at a molecular level of the protective role exerted by Dps proteins under stress conditions. After a brief description of the structural signatures and of the ferroxidase activity, which confers to all Dps proteins the capacity to decrease the hydroxyl radical induced DNA damage, the interaction of some fami...

Aceruloplasminemia is a rare autosomal recessive disorder. The lack of ceruloplasmin ferroxidase activity leads to parenchymal and reticuloendothelial iron overload, resulting in diabetes and progressive neurodegeneration with extrapyramidal disorders, ataxia, and dementia. We describe the MR imaging findings in a 40-year-old woman with hereditary aceruloplasminemia. The abnormal T2 hypointensi...

Transfer of iron from the mucosa is a critical step in dietary iron assimilation that is tightly regulated to ensure the appropriate amount of iron is absorbed to meet the body's demands. Too much iron is highly toxic, and failure to properly control intestinal iron export causes iron overload associated with hereditary forms of hemochromatosis. One form of genetic iron overload, ferroportin di...

Both O2 and H2O2 can oxidize iron at the ferroxidase center (FC) of Escherichia coli bacterioferritin (EcBfr) but mechanistic details two reactions need clarification. UV/Vis, EPR, Mössbauer spectroscopies have been used to follow when apo-EcBfr, pre-loaded anaerobically with Fe2+, was exposed or H2O2. We show that binds di-Fe2+ FC reversibly, Fe2+ ions are oxidized in concert a molecule is for...

Two distinct types of ferritin-like molecules often coexist in bacteria, the heme binding bacterioferritins (Bfr) and the non-heme binding bacterial ferritins (Ftn). The early isolation of a ferritin-like molecule from P. aeruginosa suggested the possibility of a bacterioferritin assembled from two different subunits [Moore, G. R., Kadir, F. H., Al-Massad, F. K., Le Brun, N. E., Thomson, A. J.,...

Copper, caeruloplasmin, transferrin, albumin, and total protein were measured in the serum and synovial fluid of 40 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 40 patients with osteoarthrosis. A raised synovial fluid copper and caeruloplasmin have been found to be characteristic of rheumatoid effusions. The relation between copper and caeruloplasmin in synovial fluid differs from that in serum. Syno...

Disease tolerance is a defense strategy that limits the fitness costs of infection irrespectively of pathogen burden. While restricting iron (Fe) availability to pathogens is perceived as a host defense strategy, the resulting tissue Fe overload can be cytotoxic and promote tissue damage to exacerbate disease severity. Examining this interplay during malaria, the disease caused by Plasmodium in...