Iron Metabolism-related Cell Services

Almost all cells use iron as a cofactor for essential biochemical activities, such as oxygen transport, energy metabolism, and DNA synthesis. However, iron is also potentially toxic, so these cells and organisms have evolved complex mechanisms to meet their metabolic needs. Protheragen offers a wide range of cellular iron metabolism assays to assist clients in their mechanistic studies of cellular iron metabolism.

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Cellular Iron Uptake

Mammalian cells require adequate amounts of iron to meet metabolic needs or to accomplish specific functions. Iron is delivered to tissues via circulating transferrin, and binding of iron-carrying transferrin to cell surface transferrin receptor 1 results in endocytosis and uptake of metal cargoes. Cellular iron metabolism is controlled at different levels and by different mechanisms.

• The Transferrin (Tf) Cycle

Developing erythrocytes, as well as most other cell types, obtain iron from plasma Tf. Experiments have shown that Tf deficiency leads to microcytic hypochromic anemia, demonstrating that the Tf cycle is essential for the delivery of iron to erythrocytes and that Tf is the only physiological iron donor for erythropoiesis.

Cellular iron uptake via the Tf cycle ^[1].

• Cellular Iron Metabolism

Utilization of Iron in Mitochondria

Cells primarily use iron from mitochondria to synthesize heme and ISC (iron-sulfur cluster). The mechanism of intracellular iron transport to mitochondria is not fully understood. Some hypotheses describe that Tf-derived iron is delivered directly to mitochondria through transient contacts with intranuclear bodies. In other cell types, it is generally accepted that iron acquired during the Tf cycle is first released into the cytoplasmic lysate and then targeted to the mitochondria.

IRE (Iron Response Element)/IRP (Iron Regulatory Protein 1) Regulatory System

In iron-deficient cells, IRP binds with high affinity to the homologous IRE. IRE-IRP interactions stabilize TfR1 mRNA, and increased TfR1 levels stimulate iron acquisition from plasma Tf to counteract iron deficiency. In iron-rich cells, both IRP1 and IRP2 are unable to bind to the IRE, thus allowing TfR1 mRNA degradation and ferritin mRNA translation. Thus, when iron supply exceeds cellular demand, the IRE-IRP switch minimizes further iron uptake via TfR1 and facilitates storage of excess iron in newly synthesized ferritin.

Post-transcriptional control of cellular pathways by the IRE–IRP regulatory system ^[1].

Our Services

Protheragen has been dedicated to research related to iron metabolism for many years and has a complete assay platform and imaging equipment to provide diverse solutions for cell assays in iron metabolism according to the different needs of our customers. We will customize our technical solutions to meet the specific needs of our customers to solve all the problems found in their iron metabolism studies.

Our Advantages

Protheragen has a professional team and advanced equipment, and the whole process is operated by experienced technicians to provide our customers with iron metabolism related cellular assay services. If you have any needs, please contact us.