Iron is essential for many cellular functions; consequently, disturbances of iron homeostasis, leading to either iron deficiency or iron overload, can have significant clinical consequences. Despite the clinical prevalence of these disorders, the mechanism by which dietary iron is absorbed into the body is poorly understood. We have identified a key component in intestinal iron transport by study of the sex-linked anaemia (sla) mouse, which has a block in intestinal iron transport. Mice carrying the sla mutation develop moderate to severe microcytic hypochromic anaemia. Although these mice take up iron from the intestinal lumen into mature epithelial cells normally, the subsequent exit of iron into the circulation is diminished. As a result, iron accumulates in enterocytes and is lost during turnover of the intestinal epithelium. Biochemical studies have failed to identify the underlying difference between sla and normal mice, therefore, we used a genetic approach to identify the gene mutant in sla mice. We describe here a novel gene, Heph, encoding a transmembrane-bound ceruloplasmin homologue that is mutant in the sla mouse and highly expressed in intestine. We suggest that the hephaestin protein is a multicopper ferroxidase necessary for iron egress from intestinal enterocytes into the circulation and that it is an important link between copper and iron metabolism in mammals.

The rare inherited condition acrodermatitis enteropathica (AE) results from a defect in the absorption of dietary zinc. Recently, we used homozygosity mapping in consanguineous Middle Eastern kindreds to localize the AE gene to an approximately 3.5-cM region on 8q24. In this article, we identify a gene, SLC39A4, located in the candidate region and, in patients with AE, document mutations that likely lead to the disease. The gene encodes a histidine-rich protein, which we refer to as "hZIP4," which is a member of a large family of transmembrane proteins, some of which are known to serve as zinc-uptake proteins. We show that Slc39A4 is abundantly expressed in mouse enterocytes and that the protein resides in the apical membrane of these cells. These findings suggest that the hZIP4 transporter is responsible for intestinal absorption of zinc.

The human ZIP4 gene (SLC39A4) is a candidate for the genetic disorder of zinc metabolism acrodermatitis enteropathica. To understand its role in zinc homeostasis, we examined the function and expression of mouse ZIP4. This gene encodes a well conserved eight-transmembrane protein that can specifically increase the influx of zinc into transfected cells. Expression of this gene is robust in tissues involved in nutrient uptake, such as the intestines and embryonic visceral yolk sac, and is dynamically regulated by zinc. Dietary zinc deficiency causes a marked increase in the accumulation of ZIP4 mRNA in these tissues, whereas injection of zinc or increasing zinc content of the diet rapidly reduces its abundance. Zinc can also regulate the accumulation of ZIP4 protein at the apical surface of enterocytes and visceral endoderm cells. These results provide compelling evidence that ZIP4 is a zinc transporter that plays an important role in zinc homeostasis, a process that is defective in acrodermatitis enteropathica in humans.A long recognized disease of zinc metabolism is the human genetic disorder acrodermatitis enteropathica (AE) 1 (1, 2). This autosomal recessive disorder causes classic symptoms of zinc deficiency (3), such as dermatological lesions, changes in the gastric mucosa associated with digestive system problems, lack of weight gain, and immune and reproductive problems (4 -8). Remarkably, these symptoms can be ameliorated by dietary zinc supplement (4, 6, 9 -11), consistent with the finding of reduced, but not eliminated, uptake of 65 Zn by the intestine from AE patients (12, 13), and the reduced uptake and total content of zinc in AE fibroblasts (14,15). Recent genetic mapping localized the AE gene to chromosome 8q24.3 (16) and led to its identification as a member of the ZIP superfamily (17, 18). That gene was named hZIP4 (the Human Genome Organization Nomenclature Committee named this gene SLC39A4).ZIP4 was found to be expressed in enterocytes and to reside in the plasma membrane. Mutations in hZIP4 were detected in AE patients (17, 18), strongly suggesting that they cause this genetic disorder.The recently identified ZIP superfamily of metal ion uptake transporters (19,20) are found in all eukaryotes, and many of its members mediate zinc uptake. In yeast, ZRT1 encodes the high affinity zinc transporter, and ZRT2 encodes the low affinity zinc transport system. The Arabidopsis iron-regulated transporter gene (IRT1) encodes a metal transporter that has remarkable sequence similarity with the yeast ZRTs and with other Arabidopsis zinc transporters (19, 21). Thus, the acronym ZIP was adopted to reflect ZRT/IRT-related proteins. Many members of the ZIP gene superfamily have now been detected based on sequence homology with yeast and Arabidopsis ZIP genes (22, 23). The ZIP proteins typically have eight membrane-spanning domains, and spanning domain four contains fully conserved histidyl and glycyl residues in an amphipathic ␣-helix. These proteins also often have a histidine-rich intracellular loop between s...