Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P02794 (ferritin)
 17,525 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Interstitial retinol binding protein (IRBP) is a soluble glycoprotein found in the interphotoreceptor matrix (IPM) and implicated in shuttling retinol between retina and pigment epithelium (PE) cells. The authors have studied the distribution of IRBP by EM immunocytochemistry. Thin sections of Lowicryl K4M embedded R. pipiens, X. laevis, bovine and human retinas were labeled sequentially with affinity purified rabbit antibovine IRBP, biotinyl-sheep antirabbit F(Ab')2, and avidin-ferritin, or with avidin and biotinyl-ferritin. Antigen was in the interphotoreceptor space and intercalated into the narrow spaces between PE cell microvilli. IRBP penetration between PE cells was delimited abruptly by the PE junctional complexes. IRBP was also observed in small vacuoles in the apical cytoplasm of PE cells and in PE cell phagosomes that contained IRBP surrounding ingested rod tips. IPM was heavily but inhomogeneously labeled. Antigen was usually deposited along the ROS and COS plasma membrane in a confluent layer, but sometimes it was distributed in large (ca. 0.2-micron thick) clumps. In bovine and human retinas, the connecting cilium was ensheathed by antigen at high density but an unlabeled halo surrounded its plasma membrane. The apical plasma membrane of the inner segment aligned along the connecting cilium was also densely coated by antigen. In both frog retinas, the ridges of the periciliary ridge complex (PRC) were coated with antigen. In none of the four species examined was Golgi labeling present. In bovine retinas, labeled vacuoles (granules) in the myoid region were found in very low numbers (15 vacuoles in 358 rod cells). Amphibian retinas also contained only small numbers of myoid vacuoles labeled by anti-IRBP. Absence of antibody binding to intracellular sites of synthesis in any of the cells that abut the interphotoreceptor matrix suggests that the antigen may be masked prior to its release from the synthetic cell(s) or that its level is below limits of detection.
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PMID:Electron microscopic immunocytochemistry of interstitial retinol-binding protein in vertebrate retinas. 348 71

Using a subtractive hybridization method, we have cloned cDNAs corresponding to 10 different mRNAs which share the property of being expressed in the intestine of adult but not baby rabbits. Four could be identified as coding for previously known gene products (sucrase-isomaltase, a glutathione S-transferase, a cytochrome P450, and a long form of ferritin mRNA), while six code for previously unknown proteins. One clone, AdRab-B, codes for a protein of 1458 amino acids, including (i) a putative signal sequence at the NH2 terminus, (ii) four internal repeats, 308-346 amino acids in length, (iii) a hydrophobic stretch near the COOH terminus, which represents a potential membrane anchor, and (iv) a short hydrophilic stretch at the very COOH terminus. The corresponding protein was studied with the aid of antibodies prepared against polypeptides expressed from segments of the cDNA in Escherichia coli. The protein was shown to be proteolytically processed in the intestine (but not when expressed in COS cells) and to be targeted to the brush border membrane of the enterocytes. Finally, the protein was found to have esterase and phospholipase A/lysophospholipase activity.
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PMID:Messenger RNAs expressed in intestine of adult but not baby rabbits. Isolation of cognate cDNAs and characterization of a novel brush border protein with esterase and phospholipase activity. 850 24

The understanding of the in vitro mechanisms of ferritin iron incorporation has greatly increased in recent years with the studies of recombinant and mutant ferritins. However, little is known about how this protein functions in vivo, mainly because of the lack of cellular models in which ferritin expression can be modulated independently from iron. To this aim, primate fibroblastoid COS-7 cells were transiently transfected with cDNAs for human ferritin H- and L-chains under simian virus 40 promoter and analysed within 66 h. Ferritin accumulation reached levels 300-500-fold higher than background, with about 40% of the cells being transfected. Thus ferritin concentration in individual cells was increased up to 1000-fold over controls with no evident signs of toxicity. The exogenous ferritin subunits were correctly assembled into homopolymers, but did not affect either the size or the subunit composition of the endogenous heteropolymeric fraction of ferritin, which remained essentially unchanged in the transfected and non-transfected cells. After 18 h of incubation with [59Fe]ferric-nitrilotriacetate, cellular iron incorporation was similar in the transfected and non-transfected cells and most of the protein-bound radioactivity was associated with ferritin heteropolymers, while H- and L-homopolymers remained iron-free. Cell co-transfection with cDNAs for H- and L-chains produced ferritin heteropolymers that also did not increase cellular iron incorporation. It is concluded that transient transfection of COS cells induces a high level of expression of ferritin subunits that do not co-assemble with the endogenous ferritins and have no evident activity in iron incorporation/metabolism.
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PMID:Transient overexpression of human H- and L-ferritin chains in COS cells. 946 25

Ferritin, which is composed of H and L subunits, plays an important role in iron storage and in the control of intracellular iron distribution. Synthesis of both ferritin subunits is controlled by a common cytosolic protein, iron regulatory protein (IRP), which binds to the iron-responsive element (IRE) in the 5'-UTR of the H- and L-ferritin mRNAs. In the present study, we have identified a single point mutation (A49U) in the IRE motif of H-ferritin mRNA, in four of seven members of a Japanese family affected by dominantly inherited iron overload. Gel-shift mobility assay and Scatchard-plot analysis revealed that a mutated IRE probe had a higher binding affinity to IRP than did the wild-type probe. When mutated H subunit was overexpressed in COS-1 cells, suppression of H-subunit synthesis and of the increment of radiolabeled iron uptake were observed. These data suggest that the A49U mutation in the IRE of H-subunit is responsible for tissue iron deposition and is a novel cause of hereditary iron overload, most likely related to impairment of the ferroxidase activity generated by H subunit.
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PMID:A mutation, in the iron-responsive element of H ferritin mRNA, causing autosomal dominant iron overload. 1138 86

The protein defective in hereditary hemochromatosis, called HFE, is similar to MHC class I-type proteins and associates with beta2-microglobulin (beta2M). Its association with beta2M was previously shown to be necessary for its stability, normal intracellular processing, and cell surface expression in transfected COS cells. Here we use stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary cell lines expressing both HFE and beta2M or HFE alone to study the effects of beta2M on the stability and maturation of the HFE protein and on the role of HFE in transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1)-mediated iron uptake. In agreement with prior studies on other cell lines, we found that overexpression of HFE, without overexpressing beta2M, resulted in a decrease in TfR1dependent iron uptake and in lower iron levels in the cells, as evidenced by ferritin and TfR1 levels measured at steady state. However, overexpression of both HFE and beta2M had the reverse effect and resulted in an increase in TfR1-dependent iron uptake and increased iron levels in the cells. The HFE-beta2M complex did not affect the affinity of TfR1 for transferrin or the internalization rate of transferrin-bound TfR1. Instead, HFE-beta2M enhanced the rate of recycling of TfR1 and resulted in an increase in the steady-state level of TfR1 at the cell surface of stably transfected cells. We propose that Chinese hamster ovary cells provide a model to explain the effect of the HFE-beta2M complex in duodenal crypt cells, where the HFE-beta2M complex appears to facilitate the uptake of transferrin-bound iron to sense the level of body iron stores. Impairment of this process in duodenal crypt cells leads them to be iron poor and to signal the differentiating enterocytes to take up iron excessively after they mature into villus cells in the duodenum of hereditary hemochromatosis patients.
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PMID:Regulation of transferrin-mediated iron uptake by HFE, the protein defective in hereditary hemochromatosis. 1186 20

Previously we reported that ferritin in corneal epithelial (CE) cells is a nuclear protein that protects DNA from UV damage. Since ferritin is normally cytoplasmic, in CE cells, a mechanism must exist that effects its nuclear localization. We have now determined that this involves a nuclear transport molecule we have termed ferritoid. Ferritoid is specific for CE cells and is developmentally regulated. Structurally, ferritoid contains multiple domains, including a functional SV40-type nuclear localization signal and a ferritin-like region of approximately 50% similarity to ferritin itself. This latter domain is likely responsible for the interaction between ferritoid and ferritin detected by co-immunoprecipitation analysis. To test functionally whether ferritoid is capable of transporting ferritin into the nucleus, we performed cotransfections of COS-1 cells with constructs for ferritoid and ferritin. Consistent with the proposed nuclear transport function for ferritoid, co-transfections with full-length constructs for ferritoid and ferritin resulted in a preferential nuclear localization of both molecules; this was not observed when the nuclear localization signal of ferritoid was deleted. Moreover, since ferritoid is structurally similar to ferritin, it may be an example of a nuclear transporter that evolved from the molecule it transports (ferritin).
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PMID:Ferritoid, a tissue-specific nuclear transport protein for ferritin in corneal epithelial cells. 1269 69

Ferritin is an iron-sequestering protein that is generally cytoplasmic; however, our previous studies have shown that in avian corneal epithelial (CE) cells ferritin is nuclear. We have also observed that this nuclear localization involves a tissue-specific nuclear transporter that we have termed ferritoid, and that nuclear ferritin protects DNA from oxidative damage. Recently we have determined that ferritoid functions not only as a nuclear transporter, but also, within the nucleus, it remains associated with ferritin as a heteropolymeric complex. This ferritoid-ferritin complex has unique properties such as being half the size of a typical ferritin molecule and showing preferential binding to DNA. It is likely that the association between ferritoid and ferritin is involved both in the nuclear transport of ferritin and in determining certain of the properties of the complex; therefore, we have been examining the mechanisms involved in regulating the association of these two components. As the ferritoid sequence contains six putative phosphorylation sites, we have examined here whether phosphorylation is one such mechanism. We have determined that ferritoid in the nuclear ferritoid-ferritin complexes is phosphorylated, and that inhibition of this phosphorylation, using inhibitors of PKC, prevents its interaction with ferritin. Furthermore, in an experimental model system in which the nuclear transport of ferritin normally occurs (i.e., the co-transfection of COS-1 cells with full length constructs for ferritin and ferritoid), when phosphorylation sites in ferritoid are mutated, the interaction between ferritoid and ferritin is inhibited, as is the nuclear transport of ferritin.
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PMID:Phosphorylation regulates the ferritoid-ferritin interaction and nuclear transport. 1936 Aug 8