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2 Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases and 3 Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wessling{at}hsph.harvard.edu.
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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DMT1 deficiency also exists in Belgrade (b) rats. The same glycine-to-arginine missense mutation found in the mk mouse (G185R) cosegregates with the b phenotype (8). Belgrade rats were originally characterized as having a thalassemia-like disorder (9) and possessing some characteristics described in case reports for human patients with DMT1 mutations, including hypochromic microcytic anemia and hyperferrinemia. Subsequent investigations indicate severe defects in iron absorption by several different tissues and cell types from Belgrade rats, including transferrin-mediated iron uptake by reticulocytes (10–12). Administration of parental iron to b/b rats promotes tissue iron loading (9), but, to our knowledge, how diet affects the iron status of Belgrade rats has not been studied. This study demonstrates that dietary supplementation with ferrous iron increases the liver iron concentration in Belgrade rats. Thus, the characteristics of Belgrade rats resemble the liver iron-loading phenotypes associated with DMT1 mutations in humans.
| Methods and Materials |
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RNA preparation. Total RNA from rat livers was prepared using RNA-Bee (IsoTex Diagnostics) following the manufacturer's instructions. RNA was treated with DNase (Promega) to remove any contaminating genomic DNA. Two µg DNase-treated RNA was used to synthesize cDNA with oligo-deoxythymidine (dT) primers (Promega) and M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase (Promega) for each sample.
Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis.
Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis was carried out in triplicate for each sample on an iQ5 detection system using iQ SYBR Green (Bio-Rad). Analysis was performed in a 25 µL reaction volume according to Zhang et al. (14). Forty cycles of PCR amplification were carried out as follows: 95°C for 15 s, 55°C for 30 s, and 72°C for 30 s. Primers for hepcidin were: 5'-TGACAGTGCGCTGCTGATG (forward) and 5'-GGAATTCTTACAGCATTTACAGCAGA (reverse). Primers for 36B4 were: 5'-AGATGCAGCAGATCCGCAT (forward) and 5'GTTCTTGCCCATCAGCACC (reverse). The
CT method was utilized for the data analysis where threshold cycle (CT) indicates the fractional cycle number at which the amount of amplified target reaches a fixed threshold. The
CT (CT-target – CT-reference) is the difference in threshold cycles for target (hepcidin) and reference (36B4).
Statistical analysis. Values reported are means ± SEM (n = 5–12). Statistical significance was evaluated using a 2-tailed Student's t test (2-sample assuming unequal variances) and differences were considered significant at P < 0.05.
| Results |
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CT values of 6.160 ± 0.614 vs. –1.777 ± 0.454, respectively (n = 5/group, P = 0.000002). These results are consistent with studies showing that hepcidin expression increases with liver iron loading despite severe anemia from experimentally induced inhibition of hematopoiesis (17). | Discussion |
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DMT1 is expressed at the duodenal brush border, where it is responsible for the pH-dependent uptake of dietary iron from the lumen of the intestine. It also plays an important role in bringing iron into red blood cell precursors for hemoglobin biosynthesis. DMT1 colocalizes with Tf in the recycling endosomes of many cell types, including reticulocytes, where it transports iron from the acidified lumen of the endosomes into the cytoplasm. Recent studies of knockout mice have demonstrated that DMT1 is essential for intestinal nonheme iron absorption after birth and that it is required for hemoglobin synthesis during erythropoiesis (3). It has been shown that Belgrade rat reticulocytes have markedly reduced high affinity iron transport, consistent with impaired DMT1 function, whereas low affinity uptake of iron is not altered and probably contributes to the residual capacity to produce hemoglobin (18,19). The significantly lower uptake of iron by erythroid precursors accounts for the increased Tf saturation and serum iron levels in Belgrade rats. The liver appears to have an alternative way of acquiring iron independent of DMT1 and/or Tf so that iron accumulates in Belgrade rat liver when DMT1 activity is mutationally diminished. In fact, liver iron loading is observed in DMT1 knockout mice (3). How the liver takes up iron under these circumstances is not fully understood, but perfusion studies demonstrate that non-Tf bound iron is efficiently cleared (20). The zinc transporter Zip14 mediates the uptake of non-Tf bound iron into hepatocytes and is abundantly expressed in the liver (21), raising the possibility that this transporter may be responsible for iron uptake by the liver.
The fact that dietary iron supplementation is associated with liver iron loading in Belgrade rats further suggests that intestinal nonheme iron absorption persists despite the DMT1 mutation. Studies of mice with targeted disruption of the DMT1 gene show that the transporter is required for intestinal iron absorption after birth (3); however, immunohistochemical analyses indicate that minimal levels of DMT1 protein are present at postnatal d 0 and postnatal d 5 (22). By postnatal d 10 DMT1 becomes localized in the apical membrane of the maturing intestine and is predominantly expressed in its deglycosylated form until postnatal d 20 (22). In rats, expression of DMT1 still increases by postnatal d 40 (23). In our study, the b/b rats were severely anemic at the time of weaning, but after dietary iron supplementation, hematocrits improved in a manner consistent with the pattern of developmental regulation of DMT1 expression in the duodenum (22,23). Thus, it is possible that residual activity of the DMT1 (G185R) mutant was responsible for dietary nonheme iron absorption. However, alternative DMT1-independent pathways for intestinal iron absorption have been reported (24). In particular, Zip14 is abundantly expressed in the duodenum and jejunum (21), suggesting this transporter may play a role in dietary iron absorption as well.
Our observations documenting liver iron loading in Belgrade rats help to address questions provoked by studies of patients with genetic defects in DMT1 (4–6). Clinical reports have made the assumption that the human phenotypes associated with DMT1 mutations (e.g., liver iron loading) are dissimilar to animal models of the DMT1 G185R mutation. Our study corrects this common misperception. The G185R mutation carried by Belgrade rats and mk mice impairs the subcellular localization and stability of DMT1, resulting in reduced transport function (25,26). Studies of the mk mutation on different strain backgrounds indicate that despite severe functional defects, the mutant G185R transporter displays residual activity that can be modified by genetic factors to improve survival (3). Our study confirms that when Belgrade rats are fed a high iron diet, they can incur liver iron loading, indicating that intestinal iron absorption must continue despite the defects in DMT1 activity. Although in vitro studies show that the human E399D mutant of DMT1 is stably expressed, fully processed, and retains transport activity (7,27,28), the G1285C substitution giving rise to this missense mutation causes exon skipping with a significant loss of function (7,27). Because the aberrantly spliced DMT1 isoform is predominantly expressed in the patient's duodenum, any residual function would also have to be provided by relatively low levels of DMT1 (E399D) or by other transport pathways as discussed above (21,24,29). The functional consequences of 2 other DMT1 mutations reported for a compound heterozygote patient have not yet been determined, but Western blot analysis showed significantly reduced transporter levels (5). Although low urinary hepcidin levels have been reported for 1 patient with the E399D mutation (4), our results show that hepcidin gene expression is appropriately regulated in Belgrade rats in response to iron loading. Based on our data, we conclude that loss of DMT1 function primarily disrupts iron delivery necessary for hemoglobin production during erythropoiesis and therefore contributes to liver iron loading observed in humans patients (4–6).
| FOOTNOTES |
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4 Abbreviations used: DAB, 3, 3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride; DMT1, divalent metal transporter-1; Tf, transferrin; TIBC, total iron-binding capacity. ![]()
Manuscript received 25 August 2006. Initial review completed 11 September 2006. Revision accepted 9 October 2006.
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