Dietary effects of copper and iron deficiency on rat intestine: a differential display proteome analysis

Copper and iron are cofactors of many metallo-proteins that accomplish vital functions, such as oxygen and electron transport. Specific metabolic pathways have been selected through evolution, although still not fully elucidated, to confine the dangerous reactivity of their free ionic forms. Inadequate supply of both metals can severely affect basic physiological functions. A differential analysis of the rat intestinal proteome evidenced the following dietary copper- and iron-deficiencies, i.e., significant changes in the levels of proteins belonging to different functional classes (glucose and fatty acid metabolism, molecular chaperones, cytoskeleton plasticity, vitamin transporters). The presented results bring new perspectives to understand the role of copper and iron in the metabolic pathways and provide novel diagnostic tools to characterize the effects of subclinical deficiencies of both metals in unbalanced nutritional disorders.