Effects of sham air and cigarette smoke on A549 lung cells: implications for iron-mediated oxidative damage

Inhalation of airborne pollution particles that contain iron can result in a variety of detrimental changes to lung cells and tissues. The lung iron burden can be substantially increased by exposure to cigarette smoke, and cigarette smoke contains iron particulates, as well as several environmental toxins, that could influence intracellular iron status. We are interested in the effects of environmental contaminants on intracellular iron metabolism. We initiated our studies using lung A549 type II epithelial cells as a model, and we evaluated the effects of iron dose and smoke treatment on several parameters of intracellular iron metabolism. We show that iron at a physiological dose stimulates ferritin synthesis without altering the transferrin receptor (TfR) mRNA levels of these cells. This is mediated primarily by a reduction of iron regulatory protein 2. Higher doses of iron reduce iron regulatory protein-1 binding activity and are accompanied by a reduction in TfR mRNA. Thus, for A549 cells, different mechanisms influencing IRP-IRE interaction allow ferritin translation in the presence of TfR mRNA to provide for iron needs and yet prevent excessive iron uptake. More importantly, we report that smoke treatment diminishes ferritin levels and increases TfR mRNA of A549 cells. Ferritin serves as a cytoprotective agent against oxidative stress. These data suggest that exposure of lung cells to low levels of smoke as are present in environmental pollutants could result in reduced cytoprotection by ferritin at a time when iron uptake is sustained, thus enhancing the possibility of lung damage by iron-mediated oxidative stress.