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(Journal of Nutrition. 2001;131:1459-1464.)
© 2001 The American Society for Nutritional Sciences


Articles

Expression of Stimulator of Fe Transport Is Not Enhanced in Hfe Knockout Mice1 ,2

Mitchell D. Knutson*, Joanne E. Levy{dagger},**,{ddagger}, Nancy C. Andrews{dagger},§ and Marianne Wessling-Resnick*3

* Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, {dagger} Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children’s Hospital, ** Division of Hematology, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Departments of {ddagger} Medicine and § Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

3To whom correspondence should be addressed at Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, Bldg. 2, Room 205, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: wessling{at}hsph.harvard.edu


    ABSTRACT
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Hfe knockout (-/-) mice recapitulate many of the biochemical abnormalities of hereditary hemochromatosis (HH), but the molecular mechanisms involved in the etiology of iron overload in HH remain poorly understood. It was found previously that livers of patients with HH contained 5-fold higher SFT (stimulator of Fe transport) mRNA levels relative to subjects without HH. Because this observation suggests a possible role for SFT in HH, we investigated SFT mRNA expression in Hfe-/- mice. The 4- and 10-wk-old Hfe-/- mice do not have elevated levels of hepatic SFT transcripts relative to age-matched Hfe+/+ mice, despite having 2.2- and 3.3-fold greater hepatic nonheme iron concentrations, respectively. Northern blot analyses of various mouse tissues revealed that SFT is widely expressed. The novel observation that SFT transcripts are abundant in brain prompted a comparison of SFT transcript levels and nonheme iron levels in the brains of Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice. Neither SFT mRNA levels nor nonheme iron levels differed between groups. Further comparisons of Hfe-/- and Hfe+/+ mouse tissues revealed no significant differences in SFT mRNA levels in duodenum, the site of increased iron absorption in HH. Important distinctions between Hfe-/- mice and HH patients include not only differences in the relative rate and magnitude of iron loading but also the lack of fibrosis and phlebotomy treatment in the knockout animals.


KEY WORDS: • stimulator of Fe transport • HFE • hemochromatosis • brain • mice


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH)4 is a common genetic disorder of iron homeostasis characterized by increased dietary iron absorption and progressive iron accumulation, mainly in the liver. If untreated, iron accumulation can result in tissue damage, with clinical manifestations that include cirrhosis, hepatic carcinoma, congestive heart failure and premature death (Bothwell and MacPhail 1998Citation ).

Recently, Feder et al. (1996Citation ) identified a candidate gene for HH called HFE. Two missense mutations have been found within HFE in HH patients, but only one, a Cys-to-Tyr substitution at amino acid 282 of HFE (C282Y), is associated with phenotypic expression of HH (Feder et al. 1996Citation ). Formal proof that mutations in HFE result in iron loading was provided by disrupting Hfe in mice (Bahram et al. 1999Citation , Levy et al. 1999Citation , Zhou et al. 1998Citation ). Hfe knockout (Hfe-/-) mice, like HH patients, have augmented duodenal iron absorption, abnormally high plasma transferrin saturations and increased deposition of iron in hepatic parenchymal cells. Mice homozygous for the C282Y mutation also incur hepatic iron loading but less so than in mice with the null mutation (Levy et al. 1999Citation ). However, despite our understanding of the genetic basis of HH, the exact function of HFE in iron homeostasis remains unknown (Powell et al. 2000Citation ). The finding that wild-type HFE, but not HFE (C282Y), binds to transferrin receptor (TFR) and reduces its affinity for transferrin (Feder et al. 1998Citation ) has led to various hypotheses of how HFE-TFR interactions establish a set point to regulate intestinal iron absorption (Levy et al. 2000Citation , Roy et al. 2000Citation , Waheed et al. 1999Citation ).

Dietary nonheme iron is absorbed by intestinal epithelial cells via DMT1 (divalent metal transporter 1), an apical transmembrane protein (Fleming et al. 1997Citation , Gunshin et al. 1997Citation ). Hfe-/- mice that carry mutations in DMT1 do not develop hepatic iron overload (Levy et al. 1999Citation ). However, whether the increased intestinal iron absorption of Hfe-/- mice (Bahram et al. 1999Citation ) and HH patients (Powell et al. 1970Citation ) results from up-regulated DMT1 is controversial. Fleming et al. (1999Citation ) reported that Hfe-/- mice have greater duodenal DMT1 mRNA levels than Hfe+/+ mice, whereas a similar investigation found no differences in DMT1 mRNA and protein levels between knockouts and controls (Cannone-Hergaux et al. 2001Citation ). Studies of mice carrying mutations that impair normal iron metabolism indicate that a number of other genes most likely influence intestinal iron absorption in Hfe-/- mice (Levy et al. 2000Citation ).

The mechanisms responsible for the hepatic iron loading in HH are less clear. The liver normally takes up the majority of its iron via TFR (Bonkovsky 1991Citation ), but under conditions of high intracellular iron, TFR expression becomes down-regulated (Hubert et al. 1993Citation ). Consequently, TFR expression is virtually undetectable in livers of HH patients (Sciot et al. 1987Citation ) and Hfe-/- mice (Fleming et al. 2000Citation ). Other iron transport mechanisms therefore appear to be responsible for the progressive hepatic iron accumulation in HH. One pathway involves the uptake of non–transferrin-bound iron (NTBI), which is detected in the plasma of HH patients when transferrin becomes highly saturated (Aruoma et al. 1988Citation ). NTBI undergoes a rapid first-pass extraction by the liver (Wright et al. 1986Citation ) and thus can contribute to hepatic iron loading in HH. How the liver takes up NTBI is unknown, but some evidence suggests that hepatic iron uptake is affected by SFT (stimulator of Fe transport). Cells transfected with SFT cDNA exhibit increased uptake of NTBI and transferrin-bound Fe (Gutierrez et al. 1997Citation ). Moreover, iron-dependent modulation of SFT mRNA levels has been observed in human liver HepG2 cells (Yu et al. 1998Citation ). Importantly, we have found that liver samples from HH patients contain 5-fold higher levels of SFT mRNA relative to subjects without HH (Yu et al. 1998Citation ). This latter finding, which suggests a role for SFT in the etiology of HH, motivated us to investigate SFT expression in a mouse model of the human disease. The main objective of the present study was to determine whether SFT levels are up-regulated in the livers of Hfe-/- mice. In addition, SFT expression in various tissues was examined, and SFT transcript levels in the duodenums and brains of Hfe-/- and Hfe+/+ mice were compared.


    MATERIALS AND METHODS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Animals.

Hfe-null (Hfe-/-) mice were bred and genotyped as described previously (Levy et al. 1999Citation ). Hfe-/- and wild-type (Hfe+/+) mice (129/SVEvTac background) were housed in the barrier facility at Children’s Hospital and had free access to water and Prolab RMH3000 diet (PMI Nutrition International, Richmond, IN; http://www.labdiet.com/5p00.htm). Animal protocols were approved by the Children’s Hospital Animal Care and Use Committee. Non–food-deprived male and female mice of ages 4 and 10 wk were killed by exposure to carbon dioxide, and tissues were collected and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. To stabilize tissue RNA after excision, duodenum (~1.5-cm length of small intestine distal to the pylorus) was submerged in RNAlater (Ambion, Austin, TX) and stored overnight at 4°C before RNA isolation. Liver samples from Trfhpx/hpx mice were kindly provided by Dr. Mark Fleming (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA). Trfhpx/hpx mice were treated with 6 mg transferrin on d 1, 8, 15 and 22 of life.

Identification of murine SFT cDNA.

Searches of the murine EST database for SFT sequences identified an EST clone (GenBank accession no. AA178012) with identity to human SFT (GenBank accession no. AF020761). Digestion of the EST clone (I.M.A.G.E. Clone I.D. 620233;Genome Systems,St. Louis,MO) with NotI and EcoRI produced a fragment of ~0.9 kb that was sequenced (Molecular Medicine Unit, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA). The fragment contains 879 nucleotides with 83% identity to the human orthologue (data not shown). This cDNA was used as the template for the SFT probe in Northern blot analysis.

Northern blot analyses.

Total cellular RNA was isolated using RNAzol B (Tel-Test, Friendswood, TX) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. RNA was electrophoresed in 1.2% agarose gel containing 2.2 mol formaldehyde/L, transferred to Nytran N membranes (Schleicher & Schuell, Keene, NH) using the Turboblotter transfer system (Schleicher & Schuell) and immobilized by UV cross-linking. Blots were prehybridized at 42°C for 4 h in 50% formamide (750 mol NaCl, 150 mol Tris, 113 mol Na2HPO4, 45 mol NaH2PO4 and 4 mol Na4P2O7 per L, pH 7.4), 10x Denhardt’s reagent, 10 mol ETDA/L, 0.1% SDS and 200 mg denatured salmon sperm DNA/L. Blots were then hybridized for 24–36 h at 42°C in prehybridization solution containing 10% dextran sulfate and a randomly primed 32P-labeled murine SFT probe. After washing in 0.1% SDS and 0.1x SSC at room temperature for 1 h and at 60°C for 30 min, radioactivity was detected by autoradiography and PhosphorImaging (Personal FX; Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). Blots were subsequently rehybridized with a randomly primed 32P-labeled probe for mouse ß-actin (DECAtemplate; Ambion, Austin, TX). Signal intensities were quantified using Quantity One software (Bio-Rad), and values obtained for SFT transcripts were normalized to those obtained for ß-actin. To confirm that the ß-actin reference transcript did not differ between Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice, blots were stripped and reprobed to determine mRNA levels of a second reference transcript, the ribosomal phosphoprotein 36B4 (Laborda 1991Citation ). The analytical error of Northern blot analysis was assessed by routine determination of samples in duplicate, and the mean difference in values for normalized SFT mRNA was 8.4% (n = 17, range 1–18%), indicating relatively low analytical variability.

Measurement of tissue nonheme iron concentration.

Hepatic nonheme iron was measured colorimetrically after acid digestion of ~100 mg of tissue (Torrance and Bothwell 1968Citation ). Total brain nonheme iron was measured after the entire brain was homogenized using a ground glass pestle and tube. To prevent RNase activity, the homogenization buffer (PBS, pH 7.4) contained 4x 104 U RNasin/L (Promega, Madison, WI). One aliquot of the homogenate was used for RNA isolation as described above. Brain nonheme iron concentration was measured colorimetrically after acid digestion of ~one-half total homogenate.

Statistical analyses.

Values are expressed as mean ± SE. Differences between means were determined using unpaired Student’s t test (P < 0.05).


    RESULTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Tissue distribution of SFT mRNA.

The pattern of SFT expression in various mouse tissues was determined using Northern blot analysis; the 1.4-kb SFT transcript is widely expressed (Fig. 1Citation ). A faint band of ~2.4 kb also can be seen in some tissues, as has been reported for human tissues (Gutierrez et al. 1997Citation ). Previous Northern blot analyses of human tissues revealed SFT expression in spleen, small intestine, colon, thymus, prostate, testis, ovary and peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL), with the highest levels in PBL and the spleen (Gutierrez et al. 1997Citation ). Here we found that SFT transcripts are also found in mouse spleen, small intestine (duodenum) and colon, as well as in mouse liver, kidney, lung, heart and brain. Of particular interest for this study were the confirmation that SFT transcripts are expressed in liver and duodenum of mice and the observation that SFT transcripts are particularly abundant in brain.



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Figure 1. Northern blot analysis of SFT expression in various mouse tissues. Twenty micrograms of total RNA from the mouse tissues indicated were electrophoresed and transferred to a Nytran N membrane, as described in Materials and Methods. Equal loading of RNA in different lanes was confirmed by ethidium bromide staining (data not shown). The Northern blot was hybridized with 32P-labeled probe for murine SFT and subjected to autoradiography. Shown is a 4-d exposure using two intensifying screens.

 
Nonheme iron levels in liver of Hfe-/- mice.

The 4-wk-old Hfe-/- mice had 2.2-fold higher (P < 0.05) levels of hepatic nonheme iron than Hfe+/+ mice; by 10 wk of age, these values were 3.3-fold higher (P < 0.001) (Fig. 2Citation ). The measured elevations in hepatic nonheme iron concentrations are within the range of values previously reported for similarly aged Hfe-/- mice (Bahram et al. 1999Citation , Fleming et al. 1999 and 2000Citation Citation , Levy et al. 1999Citation ).



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Figure 2. Hepatic nonheme iron concentrations in Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice. Liver was excised from mice at 4 wk (n = 3) and 10 wk (n = 6) of age. Iron concentration (µmol nonheme Fe/g wet liver) was determined by the method of Torrance and Bothwell (1968Citation ). The values shown are means ± SE. *Significantly different at same age (P < 0.02 at 4 wk; P < 0.001 at 10 wk).

 
SFT mRNA levels in liver of Hfe-/- mice.

To determine whether hepatic SFT expression is up-regulated in Hfe-/- mice, SFT mRNA levels were compared in Hfe-/- and Hfe+/+ mice at 4 and 10 wk of age (Fig. 3ACitation , and BCitation , respectively). No differences in hepatic SFT mRNA levels were observed between groups at either age. The finding that SFT expression is not higher in the Hfe-/- mice contrasts markedly with the observed up-regulation of SFT mRNA in HH patients (Yu et al. 1998Citation ). To confirm that the apparent lack of SFT up-regulation did not reflect differences in ß-actin expression between Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice, blots were reprobed to measure levels of a second reference transcript, 36B4 (Laborda 1991Citation ). For the Northern blot shown in Fig. 3ACitation , the R2 between ß-actin and 36B4 was 0.90; for Fig. 3BCitation , R2 was 0.84. Excellent correlations between ß-actin and 36B4 mRNA levels and the lack of any difference in SFT expression normalized to either reference transcript strengthen the conclusion that SFT mRNA levels are not enhanced in Hfe-/- mice.



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Figure 3. Northern blot analysis of SFT expression in liver of Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice. A, Northern analysis of SFT expression in livers of 4-wk-old mice (n = 6; three representative samples are shown). Total RNA (50 µg) from liver was electrophoresed and transferred to a Nytran N membrane. The Northern blot was hybridized with 32P-labeled murine SFT probe and then stripped and reprobed with ß-actin. After exposure to autoradiographic film, SFT transcript levels were quantified using densitometry and normalized to those obtained for ß-actin. B, Northern analysis of SFT expression in livers from 10-wk-old mice (n = 6; three representative samples shown). Samples in B were exposed to a phosphor screen and quantified using PhosphorImaging (Quantity One software; Bio-Rad). The values shown are means ± SE.

 
SFT mRNA in duodenum of Hfe-/- mice.

Because Hfe-/- mice have increased absorption of dietary iron by the small intestine (Bahram et al. 1999Citation ), duodenal SFT expression was also evaluated. SFT transcript levels did not differ significantly between groups at 4 or 10 wk of age (Fig. 4Citation ). It therefore seems unlikely that SFT is responsible for the increased intestinal iron absorption observed in these animals (Bahram et al. 1999Citation ).



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Figure 4. Northern blot analysis of SFT expression in duodenum of Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice. A, Northern analysis of SFT expression in duodenum of 4-wk-old mice (n = 3). Total RNA from duodenum (~1.5-cm length of small intestine distal to the pylorus) (50 µg) was electrophoresed and transferred to a Nytran N membrane. The Northern blot was hybridized with 32P-labeled murine SFT probe and then stripped and reprobed with ß-actin. After exposure to phosphor screen (Bio-Rad), SFT transcript levels were quantified using PhosphorImaging (Quantity One software, Bio-Rad) and normalized to those obtained for ß-actin. B, Northern analysis of SFT expression in duodenum of 10-wk-old mice (n = 6; three representative samples are shown). The values shown are means ± SE.

 
SFT mRNA and nonheme iron levels in brain of Hfe-/- mice.

The observation that SFT transcripts are abundant in brain prompted further comparison of SFT transcript and nonheme iron levels in total brain homogenate of Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice. SFT mRNA levels did not differ between groups at either age (Fig. 5Citation ). Total brain nonheme iron concentrations for 4-wk-old Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice were 0.32 ± 0.08 and 0.25 ± 0.02 µmol/g wet brain, respectively; in 10-wk-old mice, values were 0.27 ± 0.01 and 0.30 ± 0.01 µmol/g wet brain. Total brain iron levels did not differ. The lack of iron accumulation in the brain, despite significant hepatic iron loading, is consistent with studies of other animal models of iron overload (Papanastasiou et al. 2000Citation ).



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Figure 5. Northern blot analysis of SFT expression in brain of Hfe+/+ and Hfe-/- mice. A, Northern analysis of SFT expression in brains of 4-wk-old mice brain (n = 3). Total RNA (20 µg) from whole brain homogenate was electrophoresed and transferred to a Nytran N membrane. The Northern blot was hybridized with 32P-labeled murine SFT probe and then stripped and reprobed with ß-actin. After exposure to phosphor screen (Bio-Rad), SFT transcript levels were quantitated using PhosphorImaging (Quantity One software; Bio-Rad) and normalized to those obtained for ß-actin. B, Northern analysis of SFT expression in brains of 10-wk-old mice (n = 3). The values shown are means ± SE.

 
SFT mRNA and nonheme iron levels in liver of hypotransferrinemic (Trfhpx/hpx) mice.

The observation that Hfe-/- mice do not have elevated levels of hepatic SFT transcripts motivated us to examine hepatic SFT mRNA levels in Trfhpx/hpx mice (Bernstein 1987Citation ). When maintained without continuous transferrin or transfusional therapy, Trfhpx/hpx mice absorb excessive amounts of dietary iron and accumulate greater levels of hepatic iron in parenchymal cells than do Hfe-/- mice (Trenor et al. 2000Citation ). The 4- to 5-wk-old Trfhpx/hpx mice had 2.6-fold higher (P < 0.05) hepatic nonheme iron concentrations than Trf+/? mice; at 10 wk, these levels were 22-fold higher (P < 0.0001) (Fig. 6Citation ). [Trf+/? denotes that the mice were either wild-type (Trf+/+) or heterozygous for the hpx mutation (Trf+/hpx). Trf+/hpx mice do not accumulate significantly more hepatic iron than do Trf+/+ mice (Trenor et al. 2000Citation ).] However, hepatic SFT mRNA levels did not differ significantly between Trfhpx/hpx and Trf+/? mice at 4 wk of age (Fig. 7Citation ). Northern blot analysis of 10-wk-old Trf+/? and Trfhpx/hpx mice indicated a similar lack of hepatic SFT up-regulation in severely iron-loaded animals (data not shown).



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Figure 6. Hepatic nonheme iron concentrations in hypotransferrinemic (Trfhpx/hpx) mice and (Trf+/?) controls. Liver was excised from mice at 4–5 wk (n = 4) and 10 wk (n = 3) of age. Iron concentration (µmol nonheme Fe/g wet liver) was determined by the method of Torrance and Bothwell (1968). The values shown are means ± SE. *Significantly different at same age (P < 0.001 at 4–5 wk; P < 0.0001 at 10 wk).

 


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Figure 7. Northern blot analysis of SFT expression in liver of Trfhpx/hpx and Trf+/? mice. Northern analysis is presented of SFT expression in livers of 4- to 5-wk-old mice (n = 4; three representative samples shown). Total RNA (50 µg) from liver was electrophoresed and transferred to a Nytran N membrane. The Northern blot was hybridized with 32P-labeled murine SFT probe and then stripped and reprobed with ß-actin. After exposure to phosphor screen (Bio-Rad), SFT transcript levels were quantified using PhosphorImaging (Quantity One software; Bio-Rad) and normalized to those obtained for ß-actin. Values are means ± SE.

 

    DISCUSSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
The observation that livers of HH patients contain 5-fold higher SFT mRNA levels (Yu et al. 1998Citation ) suggests that enhanced SFT expression contributes to the etiology of the disease. Thus, the role of SFT in HH was evaluated by examining mRNA levels in the Hfe-/- mouse, an animal model of HH. The most important finding from this study is that 4- and 10-wk-old Hfe-/- mice do not have elevated hepatic SFT mRNA levels. This observation, which contrasts sharply with that of highly elevated levels of SFT transcripts in the livers of HH patients, indicates that hepatic iron loading can occur without up-regulation of hepatic SFT expression.

Different responses of liver SFT mRNA levels obviously may reflect species differences. For example, most HH patients accrue iron gradually, with clinical manifestations usually appearing around age 50 (Edwards 1999Citation ), whereas Hfe-/- mice rapidly develop hepatic iron overload relatively early (i.e., by 4–10 wk of age). Another consideration is that hepatic nonheme iron concentrations in HH patients are often >10-fold higher than normal (Edwards 1999Citation , Jandl 1996Citation ), whereas the 10-wk-old Hfe-/- mice in the present study had only 3.3-fold higher hepatic iron levels than age-matched controls. However, the observation that SFT levels are not elevated in Trfhpx/hpx mice, which have up to 22-fold higher hepatic iron concentrations relative to Trf+/? controls, suggests that the lack of up-regulated SFT mRNA in Hfe-/- mice is not due to a lower magnitude of iron loading in the knockout mice relative to HH patients. One caveat is that Trfhpx/hpx mice cannot export iron from liver. Thus, although the Trfhpx/hpx mice load iron in hepatic parenchymal cells similar to HH patients (Kaplan et al. 1988Citation ), aspects of their iron metabolism differ.

Two additional important distinctions between the Hfe-/- mice and HH patients merit further attention. First, the knockout mice do not develop hepatic fibrosis (J.E.L. and N.C.A., personal observations), a condition commonly seen in HH patients with >80 µmol Fe/g wet liver (Bassett et al. 1986Citation ). Although this difference might relate to lower hepatic iron loads in Hfe-/- mice (~12 µmol Fe/g wet liver), the lack of detectable fibrosis in 9-mo-old Trfhpx/hpx mice with massive iron loads (287 µmol Fe/g wet liver) suggests that mouse liver is intrinsically more resistant to liver damage (Trenor et al. 2000Citation ). Pathology reports for the HH liver samples in which SFT was elevated (Yu et al. 1998Citation ) reveal that four of six were fibrotic (pathology reports were not available for the other two, but all samples were taken from liver transplant recipients). Further studies could assess the effect of fibrosis and/or cirrhosis on hepatic SFT mRNA levels. The second notable distinction arises from the fact that HH patients are usually treated by phlebotomy. In response to acute blood loss, erythropoiesis is stimulated and iron absorption is increased. Thus, if the HH patients who had elevated hepatic SFT mRNA levels had been bled (detailed clinical histories are not available) (Yu et al. 1998Citation ), it is conceivable that phlebotomy promoted the effect. This hypothesis can be tested using the Hfe-/- mouse as a model to study the response to blood loss.

SFT mRNA is particularly abundant in mouse brain, suggesting a role in brain iron metabolism. The mechanisms that govern the uptake and distribution of iron in the brain are still poorly understood (Malecki et al. 1999Citation ). Nonheme iron is unevenly distributed in the brain; it is found predominantly in oligodendrocytes and is particularly concentrated in the globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, putamen and substantia nigra (Beard et al. 1993Citation ). Future studies on the regional distribution and cellular localization of SFT mRNA in the brain may help to determine whether SFT plays a role in brain iron homeostasis. Total brain iron concentrations do not differ between Hfe-/- and Hfe+/+, consistent with studies of ß-2 microglobulin knockout [B2m-/-] mice (Moos et al. 2000Citation ), another animal model of HH. Moreover, the distributions of ferric iron, ferritin and transferrin in brain are indistinguishable between the B2m-/- and B2m+/+ mice. Taken together, our results and those obtained by Moos et al. (2000Citation ) indicate that mouse brain appears to be protected from iron overload resulting from a lack of functional Hfe.

In conclusion, this study demonstrates that SFT is widely expressed in mouse tissues and that its expression levels in duodenum, brain and liver do not differ between Hfe-/- and Hfe+/+ mice. The lack of elevated hepatic SFT mRNA levels in Hfe-/- mice suggests that SFT is not responsible for the hepatic iron loading observed in these animals. However, these data do not exclude the possibility that SFT may be a potential modifier gene of the hemochromatosis phenotype, as has been reported recently for ß-2 microglobulin, DMT1, hephaestin and transferrin receptor (Levy et al. 2000Citation ).


    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
We thank Mark Fleming and Lynne Montross for kindly providing the liver samples and iron analyses, respectively, from the hypotransferrinemic mice.


    FOOTNOTES
 
1 Presented in part at Experimental Biology ’00, April 2000, San Diego, CA [Knutson, M. D., Levy, J. L., Andrews, N. C. & Wessling-Resnick, M. (2000) Stimulator of Fe transport expression in HFE-knockout mice. FASEB J. 14: A731 (abs.); and at American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, June 2000, Boston [Knutson, M. D., Levy, J. L., Andrews, N. C. & Wessling-Resnick, M. (2000) Expression of stimulator of Fe transport mRNA in HFE-knockout mice. FASEB J. 14: A1328 (abs.)]. Back

2 Supported by National Institutes of Health Grants DK07703 and DK09998 (M.D.K), DK56160 (M.W.R.), HL03503 (J.E.L.) and HL51057 (N.C.A). M.W.-R. is an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association. N.C.A. is an Associate Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Back

4 Abbreviations used: B2m-/-, ß-2 microglobulin knockout; B2m+/+, ß-2 microglobulin wild type; DMT1, divalent metal transporter 1; EST, expressed sequence tag; Hfe-/-, Hfe knockout; Hfe+/+, Hfe wild type; HH, hereditary hemochromatosis; NTBI, non–transferrin-bound iron; SFT, stimulator of iron transport; TFR, transferrin receptor; Trfhpx/hpx, homozygous hypotransferrinemic; Trf+/?, either Trf wild type (Trf+/+) or heterozygous for the hypotransferrinemic mutation (Trf+/hpx). Back

Manuscript received September 18, 2000. Initial review completed November 14, 2000. Revision accepted February 21, 2001.


    REFERENCES
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 

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