Iron is vital for almost every organism by participating in a wide variety of metabolic
processes and its tight regulation is an important aspect of life of the cell. Tf,
TfR2 and hephaestin are the genes involved in the transport and metabolism of body
iron. We used different rat models to observe the hepatic changes in the expression
of these genes by damaging noxae: CCl4 administration and Partial hepatectomy (PH). Total liver RNA was isolated, reverse
transcribed and studied by real time PCR. Tf expression was downregulated to 0.44
fold (24h; P=0.004**), TfR2 to 0.52 fold (12h; P=0.137) and Heph to 0.43 fold (12h;
P=0.0154*) in the model of acute CCl4 liver injury. In case of PH induced liver injury the expression of Tf was downregulated
to 0.4 fold (24h; P=0.127), TfR2 to 0.5 fold (24h; P=0.0046**) and Heph to 0.2 fold
(24h; P=0.021*). From this data we can conclude that the transport of iron is restricted
during inflammation or injury and this is achieved by limiting the availability of
the iron transport and metabolism machinery.
CCl4 - Heph - PH - Tf - TfR2
