Molecular regulation of cellular iron balance.
Handling a life-supporting yet redox-active metal like iron represents a significant challenge to cells and organisms that must not only tightly balance intra- and extracellular iron concentrations but also chaperone it during its journey from its point of entry to final destinations, to prevent inappropriate generation of damaging reactive oxygen species. Accordingly, regulatory mechanisms have been developed to maintain appropriate cellular and body iron levels. In intracellular compartments, about 95% of iron is protein-bound and the expression of the major proteins of iron metabolism is controlled by an integrated and dynamic system involving multilayered levels of regulation. However, dysregulation of iron homeostasis, which could result from both iron-related and unrelated effectors, may occur and have important pathological consequences in a number of human disorders. In this review, we describe the current understanding of the mechanisms that keep cellular iron balance and outline recent advances that increased our knowledge of the molecular physiology of iron metabolism. © 2017 IUBMB Life, 69(6):389-398, 2017.
['Recalcati|Stefania|S|', 'Gammella|Elena|E|', 'Buratti|Paolo|P|', 'Cairo|Gaetano|G|0000-0002-8147-4720']
D000818:Animals D015703:Antigens, CD D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors D027682:Cation Transport Proteins D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins D005293:Ferritins D005786:Gene Expression Regulation D006420:Hemeproteins D064451:Hepcidins D034441:Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins D006706:Homeostasis D006801:Humans D007501:Iron D020033:Protein Isoforms D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins D011990:Receptors, Transferrin D020218:Response Elements D015398:Signal Transduction D014157:Transcription Factors D014168:Transferrin
iron ferritin ferroportin hepcidin iron regulatory proteins transferrin receptor