Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Quantifying Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Type III Secretion System Activity Following Iron Starvation and Anaerobic Growth
Published on: May 31, 2024
Iron in innate immunity: starve the invaders
1David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1690, United States. tganz@mednet.ucla.edu
Abstract:
Iron is essential for nearly all living organisms. Innate immunity effectively restricts iron availability to microbial invaders. Some microbes have evolved effective countermeasures that blunt the effect of iron restriction. Recent epidemiologic studies have highlighted the potentiating effect of iron on microbial infections. Laboratory studies have focused on specific immune mechanisms that mediate iron withholding from microbes constitutively and in response to infections. Specialized inflammation-regulated proteins chelate iron, trap siderophores, and transport iron or modulate its transport to alter its tissue distribution during infections.
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