Heme Metabolism Flashcards
How many grams of iron are there in an adult male?
3-4 grams
What is the daily iron uptake & excretion?
1 mg for each
How is iron excreted?
- urine or stool
- desquamination of skin & intestinal tract
What are the compounds that contain iron?
- hemoglobin/myoglobin
- enzymes
What are the compounds that store iron?
- ferritin
- hemosiderin
What is the driving force for movement of Fe?
bone/erythroid marrow
What is ferritin?
protein that stores iron primarily in the liver & kidney
What is the role of ferritin?
brings Fe from blood to other tissues
Is Fe oxidized before or after binding to transferrin?
before
What are the steps of dietary iron uptake with DMT1?
- Ingest food with Fe3+ in it
- Fe3+ makes its way into the gut
- Fe3+ is reduced into Fe2+ by ferrireductase
- Fe2+ is brought into enterocytes (cells lining the intestine) by DMT1 (Divalent Metal Transporter 1)
- Inside the enterocyte, Fe2+ can be stored as ferritin. But bulk of Fe2+ is transported into the blood
- In the blood, Fe2+ is oxidized to Fe3+
- Fe3+ binds transferrin to be transported in the blood to other tissues
What are the steps of iron transport with transferrin?
- Fe3+ binds transferrin to be transported in the blood to other tissues
- Diferric transferrin binds the transferrin receptor
- The diferric transferrin, bound to the transferrin receptor, is brought into the cell via a vesicle -> endosome
- Protons are pumped into the endosome which decreases the pH
- The decreased pH within the endosome causes Fe3+ to detach from transferrin
- Fe3+ is released into the cytoplasm of the cell
- Apo-transferrin (transferrin without iron bound to it) has high affinity for the transferrin receptor, so apo-tf remains attached to the receptor in the endosome
- The vesicle is externalized and apo-tf is released back into the blood to help transport more Fe3+
What is happening to most of the Fe in our body?
conserved/recycled for synthesis of heme towards Hgb production
What is the structure of heme?
- planar molecule with 1 Fe & tetrapyrrole ring
- stable due to resonance
What is the cell location of heme synthesis?
mitochondria & cytosol
What is the organ location of heme synthesis?
liver & bone marrow