Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Designing Porous Silicon Films as Carriers of Nerve Growth Factor
Published on: January 25, 2019
Treatment with nerve growth factor decreases expression of divalent metal transporter 1 and transferrin receptor in
Jun Wang1, Zhong-ming Qian, Hong Jiang
1Laboratory of Iron Metabolism, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, PR China.
Abstract:
Divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1) and transferrin receptor (TfR) might play a key role in non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI) and transferrin-bound iron (Tf-Fe) uptake by neuronal cells. Recent studies demonstrated that nerve growth factor (NGF)-treated PC12 cells (the neuronal phenotype) have higher NTBI as well as Tf-Fe uptake compared with untreated cells (the undifferentiated cells). We speculated the increased NTBI and Tf-Fe uptake induced by NGF treatment might be associated with the increased expression of DMT1 and TfR. In this study, we investigated the effect of NGF treatment on DMT1 and TfR expression in PC12 cells. Contrary to our expectation, treatment with NGF induced a significant decrease rather than increase in DMT1+IRE, DMT1-IRE and TfR expression in the cells. The data demonstrate that the increase in iron uptake is not associated with the DMT1 and TfR in NGF-treated PC12 cells. The RT-PCR findings of no change in DMT1 mRNA plus our data suggest that regulation of DMT1 expression by NGF might be at the post-transcriptional level.
