Hepcidin, a master regulator of iron homeostasis, is produced in small amounts by inflammatory monocytes/macrophages. Chronic immune activation leads to iron retention within monocytes/macrophages and the development of anemia of chronic disease (ACD). We questioned whether monocyte-derived hepcidin exerts autocrine regulation toward cellular iron metabolism. Monocyte hepcidin mRNA expression was significantly induced within 3 hours after stimulation with LPS or IL-6, and hepcidin mRNA expression was significantly higher in monocytes of ACD patients than in controls. In ACD patients, monocyte hepcidin mRNA levels were significantly correlated to serum IL-6 concentrations, and increased monocyte hepcidin mRNA levels were associated with decreased expression of the iron exporter ferroportin and iron retention in these cells. Transient transfection experiments using a ferroportin/EmGFP fusion protein construct demonstrated that LPS inducible hepcidin expression in THP-1 monocytes resulted in internalization and degradation of ferroportin. Transfection of monocytes with siRNA directed against hepcidin almost fully reversed this lipopolysaccharide-mediated effect. Using ferroportin mutation constructs, we found that ferroportin is mainly targeted by hepcidin when expressed on the cell surface. Our results suggest that ferroportin expression in inflammatory monocytes is negatively affected by autocrine formation of hepcidin, thus contributing to iron sequestration within monocytes as found in ACD. IntroductionA dysregulated iron homeostasis is a cornerstone of acute and chronic inflammatory processes involving cell-mediated immunity and frequently leads to the development of anemia, termed as anemia of chronic disease (ACD), or anemia of inflammation. 1,2 ACD is a multifactorial disease, where immune mechanisms play key pathogenetic roles. These include cytokine-mediated suppression of erythropoiesis, 3,4 a blunted erythropoietin response, [5][6][7] and an increased iron accumulation in and a defective iron recycling from the reticuloendothelial system. [8][9][10][11][12][13] The liver-derived acute phase protein hepcidin, which is induced by cytokines and iron, plays a key role in this concert. 14,15 It causes anemia when overexpressed, 16,17 whereas hepcidin mutations lead to hepatic iron overload, 18,19 which can be referred to its regulatory effects on cellular iron efflux. This is exerted after binding of hepcidin to the only known cellular iron exporter ferroportin, [20][21][22] leading to ferroportin internalization and blockade of duodenal iron absorption and macrophage iron recycling. 23 Because hepcidin expression is induced by inflammatory stimuli, including interleukin-6 (IL-6) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), [24][25][26][27][28][29] an increased expression of this acute phase protein has been found to be associated with macrophage iron retention in ACD patients. 30,31 In addition, hepcidinindependent inhibition of ferroportin mRNA expression by inflammatory cytokines also contributes to macrophage iron rete...

NOS2-derived nitric oxide drives ferroportin-1–mediated iron export in Salmonella-infected macrophages, thus limiting bacterial growth.

H1 histones, isolated from logarithmically growing and mitotically enriched human lymphoblastic T-cells (CCRF-CEM), were fractionated by reversed phase and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography, subjected to enzymatic digestion, and analyzed by amino acid sequencing and mass spectrometry. During interphase the four H1 subtypes present in these cells differ in their maximum phosphorylation levels: histone H1.5 is tri-, H1.4 di-, and H1.3 and H1.2, only monophosphorylated. The phosphorylation is site-specific and occurs exclusively on serine residues of SP(K/A)K motifs. The phosphorylation sites of histone H1.5 from mitotically enriched cells were also examined. In contrast to the situation in interphase, at mitosis there were additional phosphorylations, exclusively at threonine residues. Whereas the tetraphosphorylated H1.5 arises from the triphosphosphorylated form by phosphorylation of one of two TPKK motifs in the C-terminal domain, namely Thr 137 and Thr 154 , the pentaphosphorylated H1.5 was the result of phosphorylation of one of the tetraphosphorylated forms at a novel nonconsensus motif at Thr 10 in the N-terminal tail. Despite the fact that histone H1.5 has five (S/T)P(K/A)K motifs, all of these motifs were never found to be phosphorylated simultaneously. Our data suggest that phosphorylation of human H1 variants occurs nonrandomly during both interphase and mitosis and that distinct serineor threonine-specific kinases are involved in different cell cycle phases. The order of increased phosphorylation and the position of modification might be necessary for regulated chromatin decondensation, thus facilitating processes of replication and transcription as well as of mitotic chromosome condensation.The nucleosome core, which consists of 146 bp of DNA wrapped 1.75 times around an octamer of core histones, represents the fundamental subunit of chromatin (for review, see Ref. 1). The H1 or linker histones are associated with the core histone-DNA complex and with the linker DNA between adjacent nucleosomes. Histone H1 is phosphorylated in a cell cycle-dependent manner: levels of H1 phosphorylation are usually lowest in the G 1 phase and rise continuously during S and G 2 . The M phase, where chromatin is highly condensed, shows the maximum number of phosphorylated sites. The individual H1 subtypes, however, differ in their degree of phosphorylation during the cell cycle (2, 3). A number of studies indicate that H1 phosphorylation is more likely involved in chromatin decondensation than in condensation (4). H1 phosphorylation seems to destabilize chromatin structure, thus weakening its binding to DNA. This decondensation of chromatin may give the DNA access to factors involved in transcription and replication in G 1 and S as well as to condensing factors active during mitosis (5). Recent studies demonstrate that H1 phosphorylation regulates specific gene expression in vivo and that it acts by mimicking the partial removal of H1 (6).The H1 histones consist of a globular central region flanked by short N...

In stimulating effector functions of mononuclear phagocytes, IFN-c is of pivotal importance in host defense against intramacrophage pathogens including salmonellae. As the activity of IFN-c is modulated by iron and since a sufficient availability of iron is essential for the growth of pathogens, we investigated the regulatory effects of IFN-c on iron homeostasis and immune function in murine macrophages infected with Salmonella typhimurium. In Salmonella-infected phagocytes, IFN-c caused a significant reduction of iron uptake via transferrin receptor 1 and resulted in an increased iron efflux caused by an enhanced expression of the iron exporter ferroportin 1. Moreover, the expression of haem oxygenase 1 and of the siderophore-capturing antimicrobial peptide lipocalin 2 was markedly elevated following bacterial invasion, with IFN-c exerting a super-inducing effect. This observed regulatory impact of IFN-c reduced the intracellular iron pools within infected phagocytes, thus restricting the acquisition of iron by engulfed Salmonella typhimurium while concomitantly promoting NO and TNF-a production. Our data suggest that the modulation of crucial pathways of macrophage iron metabolism in response to IFN-c concordantly aims at withdrawing iron from intracellular Salmonella and at strengthening macrophage immune response functions. These regulations are thus consistent with the principles of nutritional immunity. IntroductionHost defense against intracellular microbes such as salmonellae or mycobacteria strongly depends on cell-mediated immunity, a major component of which is characterized by interactions between Th1 cells and macrophages [1]. By secreting Th1 cytokines, particularly IFN-c, antigen-specific Th1 cells activate a plethora of microbicidal mechanisms in infected macrophages. Specifically, in mononuclear phagocytes infected with Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium (S. typhimurium), IFN-c promotes the internalization of bacteria and stimulates their elimination by various mechanisms including reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS), generated via NADPH phagocyte oxidase and iNOS, respectively [2][3][4][5]. In Salmonella-infected mice, treatment with recombinant IFN-c increases host survival and decreases bacterial numbers in liver and spleen [6]. Conversely, neutralization of murine IFN-c functions with specific antibodies results in reduced host survival and increased bacterial counts [7]. Eur. J. Immunol. 2008. 38: 1923-1936 Immunity to infection In humans, the central importance of IFN-c for immune response against salmonellae is highlighted by the fact that patients with genetic defects in the IL-12-induced production of IFN-c or in the IFN-c receptor 1 selectively suffer from infections with salmonellae and otherwise weakly pathogenic mycobacteria since their phagocytes fail to eliminate these microbes [8,9]. Iron serves as an essential nutrient for nearly all pathogenic microorganisms, and the expression of iron acquisition systems by infectious agents is associated with their virule...