A million dollar Merit Award has been renewed for the next three years to identify the mechanisms involved in the absorption of iron and other metals, and the transport of these metals in cells. The award is funded through the National Institutes of Health and requires that the research proposal be ranked in the upper two percent of approved NIH grants. Iron is vital for all living organisms because it is essential for multiple metabolic processes to include oxygen transport, DNA synthesis and electron transport. Too little iron leads to iron deficiency anemia with significant impairment of the capability to perform physical work. Excess iron produces tissue damage from free radical formation and has been associated with the aging process, myocardial infarctions, stroke, cancer, diabetes and even alzheimer's disease and parkinsonism.
Regulation is accomplished largely in the proximal small intestine via the process of absorption.
Over the last twelve years, the laboratories of the Division of Hematology and Oncology headed bt Dr. Conrad have been funded by the National Institute of Health to identify and characterize these iron binding proteins. This research shows that mucins in the stomach bind iron at acid pH so that the iron remains soluble when it enters the more alkaline duodenum and is available for absorption. This protein was called mobilferrin, naming it after the city of discovery as well as characterizing it as the probable shuttle protein that safely transports iron through the cytoplasm. This appeared to be important because it facilitated the reduction of the ferric iron to the ferrous state so that it could be utilized for the production of iron containing proteins by the cell. The initial goals of the group were to explain the absorptive process.