It is well recognized that the iron absorption is increased during iron deficiency state and many substantial evidences support a view that the regulatory mechanism is taken place in the duodenal mucosal cells. To clarify the role of the mucosal iron binding proteins in the regulatory process of iron absorption, the author has isolated and characterized iron binding proteins from the rat intestinal mucosa and observed their biochemical features during iron absorption.
Male Wistar rats fed on low iron containing diet for a week were used throught the investigation. The rats were sacrificed at 3 hours after
59Fe administration and then the piece of upper small intestinal loop was excised. The homogenate of the mucosa was then centrifuged at 20, 000 g for 30 min at 4°C. Two iron containing fractions (peak 1 and peak 2) were obtained respectively by Sepharose 6 B gel filtration of the 20, 000 g supernatant and the extract of the precipitate with Triton X-100 (Triton extract). The nature of these fractions has been analysed.
Based on the studies of the molecular weight, isoelectric point and pattern of the immuno-precipitin reaction, it was justified that the peak 2 represent the mucosal ferritin. No significant difference in biochemical characterization between mucosal ferritin purified from the supernatant and that of the Triton extract was confirmed. Incidentally the iron content of the mucosal ferritin was much less than that of the liver ferritin. The quantitation of the protein concentration of the mucosal ferritin was made in virtue of the highly sensitive 2-site immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) in supernatant and Triton extracted ferritin. The concentration of ferritin in superna-tant was 12.8μg/mucosa g and that in Triton extracted one was 0.19μg/g.
Moreover, the interrelationship between iron absorption and concentration of the mucosal ferritin was also investigated. Rats were given
59Fe-iron solution by gastric intubation and sacrificed chronologically from 1 to 72 hours after iron administration. Contents of mucosal ferritin in supernatant and Triton extract were quantitatively investigated by the method of IRMA or immunoprecipitin reaction. In supernatant, the incorporation of the
59Fe into ferritin reached to the maximum value at 5 hours and gradually decreased. Contents of the ferritin protein showed wavy-shaped curve and maximum values were observed at 0, 10 and 72 hours after the iron administration. The observation may support a view that the simultaneous occurrences of ferritin synthesis as well as degradation and mucosal denudation in the time course of
59Fe administration is taken place. The iron administration may cause the biosynthesis of the mucosal ferritin, however, a possibility that the increased amount of the ferritin may act as the inducing factor (trigger) of the degradation mechanism of the ferritin per se in the mucosal cells.
The radioactivity study of the Triton extracted ferritin disclosed essentially identical tendency with the ferritin in supernatant.
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