Abstract
Ferroportin is the only known iron exporter, and its regulation seems to be controlled at both transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and post-translational levels. The objective of the current work was to investigate how cellular iron status affects the expression of the ferroportin gene Fpn under the influence of hepcidin, known to post-translational lower the available ferroportin protein. Nerve growth factor-beta (NGF-β)-differentiated PC12 cells, used as a model of neuronal cells, were evaluated in terms of their viability and expression of ferroportin after inducing cellular iron overload with ferric ammonium citrate (FAC) or hepcidin, iron deficiency with deferoxamine (DFO), or hepcidin in combination with FAC or DFO. Ferritin mRNA was significantly upregulated following treatment with 20 mM FAC. The viability of the differentiated PC12 cells was significantly reduced after treatment with 30 mM FAC or 1.0 μM hepcidin, but when combining FAC and hepcidin treatment, the cells remained unaffected. The expression of Fpn was concurrently upregulated after treatment with FAC in combination with hepcidin. Fifty millimolar DFO also increased Fpn. Together, these data point towards a transcriptional induction of Fpn in response to changes in cellular iron levels. Epigenetic regulation of Fpn may also occur as changes in genes associated with epigenetic regulation of Fpn were demonstrated.
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Change history
20 August 2018
The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes on Figs. 1, 2, and 7 as some of the data were not visible. With this, the correct images are hereby published.
Abbreviations
- ARE:
-
Antioxidant response element
- BSA:
-
Bovine serum albumin
- Cy5:
-
Cyanine-5
- DAPI:
-
4′,6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride
- DFO:
-
Deferoxamine
- Dmt1:
-
Divalent metal transporter 1
- DIV:
-
Days in vitro
- FAC:
-
Ferric ammonium iron (III) citrate
- FCS:
-
Fetal calf serum
- Fe2+ :
-
Ferrous iron
- Fe3+ :
-
Ferric iron
- Fpn :
-
Ferroportin gene expression
- Ftl:
-
Ferritin light chain
- Fth:
-
Ferritin heavy chain
- Hdac1:
-
Histone deacetylase 1
- IRE:
-
Iron-responsive element
- IRP:
-
Iron regulatory protein
- NGF-β:
-
Nerve growth factor beta1
- PBS:
-
Phosphate-buffered saline
- PFA:
-
Paraformaldehyde
- Phf8:
-
PHD finger protein 8
- RNS:
-
Reactive nitrogen species
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- SEM:
-
Standard error of the mean
- Tet1:
-
Ten-eleven translocation methylcytosine dioxygenase 1
- Tubb4b:
-
Class IV β-tubulin
- UTR:
-
Untranslated region
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Acknowledgments
We thank Poul Henning Jensen for providing PC12 cells and Merete Fredsgaard and Hanne Krone Nielsen, Aalborg University, Denmark, for the excellent technical assistance. We thank Assistant Professor Maj Schneider Thomsen, Aalborg University, Denmark, for the illustrative work.
Funding
The present work has been supported by The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Society, “Fonden til Lægevidenskabens Fremme,” Augustinus fonden, and the “Åse og Ejner Danielsens Fond.”
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Helgudottir, S.S., Lichota, J., Burkhart, A. et al. Hepcidin Mediates Transcriptional Changes in Ferroportin mRNA in Differentiated Neuronal-Like PC12 Cells Subjected to Iron Challenge. Mol Neurobiol 56, 2362–2374 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-018-1241-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-018-1241-3