Cell transferrin uptake

The situation prevailing in the crypt cell at the beginning of its differentiation into an enterocyte and before it has begun to climb towards the villus is shown in the lower panel. The cell s iron requirements are supplied by receptor-mediated diferric transferrin uptake from the basolateral membrane. The TfR in turn is involved in an interaction with the HFE protein, which decreases the affinity of TfR for diferric transferrin. The level of transferrin saturation, or some other factor, determines the amount of iron taken up, and presets the IRP system at a level that corresponds to the iron requirements of the organism. 

A biological example of E° is the reduction of Fe(III) in the protein transferrin, which was introduced in Figure 7-4. This protein has two Fe(III)-binding sites, one in each half of the molecule designated C and N for the carboxyl and amino terminals of the peptide chain. Transferrin carries Fe(III) through the blood to cells that require iron. Membranes of these cells have a receptor that binds Fe(III)-transferrin and takes it into a compartment called an endosome into which H is pumped to lower the pH to —5.8. Iron is released from transferrin in the endosome and continues into the cell as Fe(II) attached to an intracellular metal-transport protein. The entire cycle of transferrin uptake, metal removal, and transferrin release back to the bloodstream takes 1-2 min. The time required for Fe(III) to dissociate from transferrin at pH 5.8 is —6 min, which is too long to account for release in the endosome. The reduction potential of Fe(IH)-transferrin at pH 5.8 is E° = —0.52 V, which is too low for physiologic reductants to reach. 

Several strategies for increasing the permeability of the brain capillaries to proteins have been developed. The permeability of the BBB can be transiently increased by intra-arterial injection of the solutions with high osmolarity, which disrupts inter-endothelial tight junctions [11]. Certain protein modifications, such as cationization by hexamethyldiamine [12] and anionization by succinylation [13], produce enhanced uptake in the brain. Modification of drugs [14] and proteins [15] by linkage to an anti-transferrin receptor antibody also appears to enhance transport into the brain. This approach depends on receptor-mediated transcytosis of transferrin-receptor complexes by brain endothelial cells substantial uptake also occurs in the liver. 

Using cultured mammalian sarcoma cells, it has been found that transferrin is necessary in the growth medium for galllum-67 uptake to occur (95,96.97). A "transferrin receptor" on EMT-6 sarcoma cells for 25i iabeled transferrin was characterized by Scatchard analysis to have an average association constant K = 4.54 X 10 1/mole and approximately (with variation) 500,000 receptors per cell ( ). It was proposed that tumor accumulation of galllum-67 can occur only if the metal is complexed with transferrin so that it can interact with the receptors of tumor, as well as non-mallgnant cells (.33). The complex then enters the cell via an "adsorptive endocytosis" process (95.96.97.98.99) similar to the manner in which iron is taken up by reticulocytes and bone marrow cells (100.101). These transferrin receptors are saturable (that is, a plot of 125i transferrin uptake versus extracellular transferrin concentration reaches a peak ( at about 200 u g/ml) as more carrier transferrin is added to the medium) (95). Since uptake is also proportional to the fraction of... 

Fahmy M, Young SP. Modulation of iron metabolism in monoeyte cell line U937 by inflammatory cytokines changes in transferrin uptake, iron handling and ferritin mRNA. Biochem J 1993 296 175-181. 

Iron Uptake by Mammalian Cells - Uptake of Transferrin-bound Iron... 

Another potential source of iron, at least for hepatocytes, is receptor-independent uptake of iron from transferrin. This appears to involve an iron uptake pathway from transferrin which is neither suppressed in hepatocytes by antibodies to TfR (Trinder et at, 1988), nor by transfection of HuH-7 hepatoma cells with transferrin receptor anti-sense cDNA (Trinder etat, 1996). The same pathway may also be utilized for iron uptake from isolated transferrin N-lobe, which is not recognized by the receptor (Thorstensen et at, 1995). The possible role of TfR2 in this process remains to be established, as does the physiological importance of this pathway in intact liver. Human melanoma cells (Richardson and Baker, 1994) and Chinese hamster cells lacking transferrin receptors but transfected with melanotransferrin (Kennard et at, 1995) use another pathway for transferrin iron uptake, independent of the transferrin receptor, but utilizing iron transfer from transferrin or simple iron chelates to membrane-anchored melanotransferrin, and from there onwards into the cellular interior. 

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