Ferritin is a major iron storage protein and essential for iron homeostasis. It has a wide range of functions in the body including iron delivery, immunosuppression, angiogenesis, and cell proliferation. Ferritin is overexpressed in many cancer cells, but its precise role in cancer is unclear. In the present study, we examined the functional roles of ferritin in protecting the MCF-7 breast canc...

Reportedly, serum ferritin levels are much lower in Japanese hemodialysis (HD) patients than their Western counterparts. Therefore, the cutoff values of ferritin and transferrin saturation (TSAT) for iron deficiency might differ from other countries. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study using the Japanese nationwide registry data. We enrolled 142,339 maintenance HD patients and as...

Ferritin, with the primary function of iron storage, is a nearly ubiquitous protein found in most living organisms. Our recent investigations suggest that ferritin can assemble nanoparticles. So we use ferritin as a novel type of delivery vehicle for recombinant epitope vaccines. And, we found that ferritin form nonnative aggregates depended sensitively on NaCl concentrations. Here, we report t...

BACKGROUND Horse fibrinogen has been identified as a plasma specific ferritin-binding protein. There are two ways in the binding of ferritin-binding protein with ferritin: one is direct binding and the other is indirect binding which is heme-mediated. The aim of this study was to analyze the binding between horse fibrinogen and ferritin. FINDINGS Although fibrinogen in horse plasma did not sh...

The aim of this study is to identify the biochemical mechanism of phosphine toxicity and resistance, using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism. To date, the precise mode of phosphine action is unclear. In this report, we demonstrate the following dose-dependent actions of phosphine, in vitro: (1) reduction of ferric iron (Fe3+) to ferrous iron (Fe2+), (2) release of iron from horse ferri...

BACKGROUND In transfusion-dependent anaemias, while absolute serum ferritin levels broadly correlate with liver iron concentration (LIC), relationships between trends in these variables are unclear. These relationships are important because serum ferritin changes are often used to adjust or switch chelation regimens when liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unavailable. OBJECTIVES AND ME...

Purified human spleen ferritin was labelled with 125I. On Sepharose 6-B gel filtration four species of labelled products were separated: a component with a higher molecular weight than ferritin; a component which is eluted in the same volume as unlabelled ferritin; and two labelled compounds with molecular weights lower than ferritin. When these labelled materials were used in a double antibody...

BACKGROUND Serum ferritin is a commonly used clinical biochemical parameter and hyperferritinemia is used as a surrogate marker for iron overload, acute or chronic inflammation, malignancy or cell death. The aim of the present study was to develop purification strategies of ferritin from sera to determine if micro-heterogeneity of serum ferritin can be used to differentiate the underlying cause...

Ferritin was purified 33,000-fold from the plasma of patients with idiopathic hemochromatosis. The plasma ferritin was labeled with 131I and injected into 2 normal men. Clearance was found to be relatively slow, with 50% 131I-ferritin remaining in the plasma at 27-30 hr. The fraction of plasma ferritin that bound to concanavalin-A was found to be cleared more slowly than the nonbinding fraction...

OBJECTIVE: Some data are available on the association between components of the insulin resistance syndrome and serum ferritin. Insulin resistance is observed in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) We hypothesize that body iron stores might be increased in these women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred and six people (103 PCOS patients and 103 healthy women who were matched for a...