Studies of iron overload. Rat liver siderosome ferritin

To investigate storage of ferritin and its transition to hemosiderin under conditions of iron overload, rats were either given multiple injections of iron dextran over 4 to 5 weeks or fed a diet containing 1.3% Fe as ferric ammonium citrate for 60 days. Then, preparations of liver siderosomes (heavily iron-laden lysosomes) were examined for content of buffer-soluble ferritin and buffer-insoluble, ferritin-related protein, total nonheme iron and protein, cathepsin D activity, and ability to incorporate 14C-leucine into ferritin. Total liver nonheme iron, ferritin protein and iron, and cathepsin D activity were also determined. Although parenteral iron loading produced higher total nonheme iron in livers than dietary loading, the iron content of ferritin was approximately 20% in both groups, reflecting saturation of ferritin with iron. Siderosome nonheme iron content was greater than 40% in relation to protein. The siderosomes contained little buffer-soluble ferritin; on isoelectric focusing this was composed of isoferritins present also in cytosol ferritin. Buffer-insoluble ferritin protein, identified in siderosomes by immunofluorescence, was solubilized and found to contain immunoreactive material corresponding to L and H subunits of buffer-soluble ferritin. Transmission electron microscopy indicated the presence of relatively large quantities of "ferritin" in siderosomes, and it is argued that this was mostly buffer insoluble (denatured) or represented ferritin [FeOOH]x cores divested of protein shells. Although siderosomes had substantial cathepsin D activity, the known resistance of ferritin to this and other proteases makes it unlikely that proteolysis is an early event in the decomposition of ferritin in siderosomes. Heavily iron-laden siderosomes did not take up newly labeled ferritin or ferritin protein or 14C-precursor within 24 hours of labeling, when 14C-labeled ferritin was abundant in cytosol. The author proposes a sequence of steps leading from sequestration of buffer-soluble cytosol ferritin to storage of insoluble "hemosiderin."