Caroline Turco
Pronouns: they/them
Research Mentor(s): Yatrik Shah
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Molecular & Integrative Physiology / Medicine
Program:
Authors: Yatrik Shah
Session: Session 3: 11:00 am – 11: 50 am
Poster: 49
Abstract
Iron disorders including anemia (iron deficiency) and hemochromatosis (iron overload) are global health concerns. Iron must be tightly regulated as it is essential for cellular function but toxic at high levels. Mammals have many different ways of regulating and storing iron. Ferritin is the major mammalian iron storage protein that safely stores iron in cells. When cellular iron levels are low, ferritin is also able to release iron to be used. Additionally, the gut microbiome competes with the host for available dietary iron before it is absorbed by the small intestine. We investigated the effects of microbial depletion on intestinal iron storage, and observed a decrease in ferritin expression in germ-free mice. This suggests the microbiome is regulating host iron storage. To further investigate the mechanism of microbial regulation of host ferritin expression, we utilized T84 cells, a human colonic adenocarcinoma cell line. Previous experiments in mice showed that microbial metabolite supplementation increased ferritin expression in germ free mice. This suggests that microbial regulation of ferritin may be mediated via secreted metabolites.We then treated T84 cells with microbial metabolites derived from feces from germ-free or conventionalized mice. Western blot analysis showed cells treated with metabolites from germ-free mice had significantly lower levels of ferritin compared to those cells treated with the conventionalized metabolites. Through continued exploration, we aim to identify the specific microbes and metabolites that are sufficient to induce ferritin expression. Our research suggests that the microbes present in the gut have a substantial impact on health, and can be manipulated to produce the desired phenotypic expression of iron.
