Abstract Background There is an urgent need for more effective treatment strategies against gliomas. At present, even though various drugs have potent anti-tumor activity in vitro, their application vivo limited by ineffective delivery and systemic toxicity. Therefore, novel are needed to deliver these effectively safely the tumor site. Here, we developed adoptive transfer strategy malignant br...

Acidic isoferritins have been previously found to be highly potent inhibitors of hematopoietic progenitors at concentrations of 10(-16) to 10(-18) mol/L, and it has been suggested that acidic isoferritin inhibitory activity plays a role in the regulation of normal hematopoiesis and also in the pathogenesis of leukemia. To characterize the ferritin species that affect the in vitro growth of huma...

The iron storage protein, ferritin, is widely distributed in the living kingdom. Here the complete cDNA and derived amino-acid sequence of pea seed ferritin are described, together with its predicted secondary structure, namely a four-helix-bundle fold similar to those of mammalian ferritins, with a fifth short helix at the C-terminus. An N-terminal extension of 71 residues contains a transit p...

To identify molecular markers with predictive value for the progression of superficial bladder cancer we used the differential hybridization analysis approach. Since primary tumor material is heterogeneously composed of subpopulations that are poorly characterized, we used in this study a rat progression model system that phenotypically and cytogenetically resembles human superficial bladder ca...

Ferritins, an ancient family of protein nanocages, concentrate iron in iron-oxy minerals for iron-protein biosynthesis and protection against oxy radical damage. Of the two genetic mechanisms that regulate rates of ferritin-L synthesis, DNA transcription and mRNA translation, more is known about mRNA regulation where iron targets complexes of an mRNA structure, the iron-responsive element (IRE)...

1. Serum samples were collected from ten patients hospitalized for acute infections and from a control group of seven normal subjects. Tissue ferritin was obtained by purification of ferritin from normal human liver and from the ferritin standard of a commercially available assay kit. 2. The serum and tissue samples were incubated with concanavalin A--Sepharose, which has the ability to bind no...

Following a pulse with 59Fe-transferrin, K562 erythroleukemia cells incorporate a significant amount of 59Fe into ferritin. Conditions or manipulations which alter the supply of iron to cells result in changes in the rate of ferritin biosynthesis with consequent variations in the size of the ferritin pool. Overnight exposure to iron donors such as diferric transferrin or hemin increases the fer...

Ferritin and haemosiderin were isolated from fresh frozen human spleens that had been removed from patients with secondary iron overload due to multiple transfusions. Haemosiderin was solubilised by a novel technique that maintains its integrity. Unstained preparations of haemosiderin and ferritin were visualised and quantitative measurements made of the volumes of iron core. The mean diameter ...

Elevated serum ferritin levels without a corresponding increase in tissue iron storage have been observed in patients with certain cancers. Increased synthesis of ferritin by cancer cells has also been reported. In order to see whether similar phenomena occurred in patients with neuroblastoma, we have screened serum ferritin levels in 58 children with neuroblastoma by counterelectrophoresis usi...

Human erythroid precursors grown in culture possess membrane receptors that bind and internalize acid isoferritin. These receptors are regulated by the iron status of the cell, implying that ferritin iron uptake may represent a normal physiologic pathway. The present studies describe the fate of internalized ferritin, the mechanisms involved in the release of its iron, and the recognition of th...