The differential display method was applied to identify gene expression, which is especially up-regulated in denervated skeletal muscle. Total RNA from normal and denervated rat facial muscles (muscles zygomaticus, levator nasolabialis and caninus) was isolated, amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using certain primers and separated by electrophoresis on a polyacrylamide gel. PCR products, the amounts of which were significantly higher in the operated side than in the control side, were cut out from the gel and sequenced. One of the cDNA fragments obtained in the present study showed 100% identity in nucleotide sequence to the rat ferritin heavy chain (FHC) mRNA. Northern blot analysis and in situ hybridization histochemistry confirmed that FHC mRNA expression was up-regulated after denervation and was distributed throughout whole muscle cell bodies. The biological damage attributed to superoxide and hydrogen peroxide is dependent on the presence of intracellular free iron. Intracellularly, most of the iron that is not metabolized is sequestered in ferritin as a crystalline core of ferric irons (Fe3+). These findings suggest that alterations in the ferritin subunit composition after denervation play an important role in iron metabolism in skeletal muscle cells, resulting in restriction of the biological tissue damage caused by reactive oxygen species.