Acute administration of iron to rats has been previously shown to induce liver ferritin synthesis by increasing the translation of inactive cytoplasmic ferritin mRNAs for both heavy (H) and light (L) subunits by mobilizing them onto polyribosomes. In this report rat hepatoma cells in culture are used to explore the relationship of this response to intracellular iron levels. After adding iron as...

D ESFERRIOXAMINE (DF) is currently the most eflective chelator available for the treatment of iron overload in man.’2 Intramuscular injections reduce the rate of iron accumulation and have been shown to arrest the progress of hepatic fibrosis in children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia.3 However, used in this fashion, the drug removes a limited amount of iron, and there has been extensiv...

Iron, an essential nutrient causes serious diseases in deficient state. But more serious events occur due to the toxicity of iron overload and this leads to morbidity and mortality of a significant population of the world. Chronic iron poisoning can occur due to daily high dietary iron intake, chronic liver disease, rare genetic disorders of iron metabolism, etc. But the commonest causes of sev...

Background: Clinical studies have shown that disturbance of iron homeostasis in ischemic stroke influenced recovery and functional outcome following blood reperfusion of obstructed cerebral vessels, but the mechanism of iron-mediated toxicity in ischemic strokes has not been fully elucidated. Methods: A middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) mouse model was established by introducing an embolu...

Anthracyclines are effective anticancer agents. However, their use is limited by cardiotoxicity, an effect linked to their ability to chelate iron and to perturb iron metabolism (Mol Pharmacol 68:261-271, 2005). These effects on iron-trafficking remain poorly understood, but they are important to decipher because treatment for anthracycline cardiotoxicity uses the chelator, dexrazoxane. Incubat...

AIM Iron deficiency is a common comorbidity in chronic heart failure (CHF) which may exacerbate CHF. The c-kit⁺ cardiac stem cells (CSCs) play a vital role in cardiac function repair. However, much is unknown regarding the role of iron deficiency in regulating c-kit⁺ CSCs function. In this study, we investigated whether iron deficiency regulates c-kit⁺ CSCs proliferation, migration, apoptosis, ...

Genetic disorders of iron metabolism and chronic inflammation often evoke local iron accumulation. In Friedreich ataxia, decreased iron-sulphur cluster and heme formation leads to mitochondrial iron accumulation and ensuing oxidative damage that primarily affects sensory neurons, the myocardium, and endocrine glands. We assessed the possibility of reducing brain iron accumulation in Friedreich ...

A series of fluorescent iron chelators has been synthesized such that a fluorescent function is covalently linked to a 3-hydroxypyridin-4-one. In the present study, the fluorescent iron chelators were loaded into isolated rat hepatocytes. The intracellular fluorescence was not only quenched by an addition of a highly lipophilic 8-hydroxyquinoline-iron(III) complex but also was dequenched by the...