Ferritin is the main intracellular storage of iron. Animal studies show that female liver and kidney express more ferritin and accumulate more iron than male. However, no study so far has investigated sex and age differences in light (FtL) and heavy (FtH) ferritin chain expression. To address this, we relied on specific antibodies and immunochemical methods to analyse the expression of both ferritin chains in the liver and kidney of 3-month and 2-year-old male and female Wistar rats. To see how sex hormones may affect expression we also studied adult animals gonadectomised at the age of 10 weeks. FtL and FtH were more expressed in both organs of female rats, while gonadectomy increased the expression in males and decreased it in females, which suggests that it is stimulated by female and inhibited by male steroid hormones. Normal kidney ferritin distribution and change with aging warrant more attention in studies of (patho) physiological and toxicological processes.
Feritin je glavni skladišni protein unutarstaničnoga željeza. U korelaciji s ekspresijom feritina, istraživanja na životinjama pokazuju da jetra i bubrezi u ženki nakupljaju više željeza nego u mužjaka. Međutim, dosad se nijedno istraživanje nije bavilo spolnim i dobnim razlikama u ekspresiji lakog (FtL) i teškog (FtH) lanca koji čine feritinski nanokavez. Kako bismo to riješili, oslonili smo se na specifična protutijela i imunokemijske metode za analizu ekspresije obaju feritinskih lanaca u jetri i bubrezima odraslih i starih mužjaka i ženki štakora soja Wistar. Da bismo vidjeli kako spolni hormoni mogu utjecati na ekspresiju feritina, proučavali smo i gonadektomirane odrasle životinje. FtL i FtH bili su izraženiji u odraslih i starih životinja u obama organima u ženki štakora; gonadektomija je povećala ekspresiju u mužjaka, a smanjila je u ženki, što upućuje na to da feritine stimuliraju ženski, a inhibiraju muški steroidni hormoni. Normalna raspodjela feritina u bubrezima i promjena sa starenjem zahtijevaju više pažnje u proučavanju (pato)fizioloških i toksikoloških procesa.
Keywords: epitelne stanice; feritinski nanokavez; ferritin nanocage; hepatociti; hepatocytes; immunofluorescence; imunofluorescencija; intercalated cells; interkalirane stanice; iron metabolism; macula densa; metabolizam željeza; nefron; nephron; steroid hormones; steroidni hormoni; western blot.
© 2022 Mirela Pavić Vulinović, Petra Turčić, Vedran Micek, Marija Ljubojević, published by Sciendo.