On ferritin and iron
May 2, 2023 11:46 PM   Subscribe

Iron is an element. Ferritin is a cage made of protein that stores iron. How is ferritin made in the human body? How does iron get into the ferritin? What is the life cycle of iron?

I would like to read articles or papers written in English (vs. completely in jargon) that answers these questions, please. Whatcha got? Thanks!
posted by aniola to Science & Nature (3 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
When I was curious about this I was quite satisfied by the Wikipedia article about metalloproteins.
posted by xueexueg at 11:56 PM on May 2, 2023


You needn’t be intimidated by jargon. Just ask ChatGPT to translate the text into 10th grade reading level, without summarizing it. It’ll help you get most of the content even if it leaves in some 30% of the jargon.
posted by Dragonness at 1:29 AM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]


Ferritin is made like all other proteins in the human body* - a chain of amino acids is synthesized according to a "recipe" from DNA copied to mRNA. This chain folds up into a three-dimensional structure. Many (most?) proteins, including ferritin, are made up of several folded-up chains (called subunits) that fit together. There are also often helper proteins that nudge newly-created proteins into the correct shape.

This textbook chapter is probably more jargon-y than you'd like but it also has some nice pictures of the structure of the ferritin protein and where/how the iron gets into it: Iron Storage: Ferritin

* or pretty much any other protein in any living cell
posted by mskyle at 5:09 AM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]


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