Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Human Iron Metabolism by Iron Regulatory Proteins

In mammalian iron metabolism, ferritin, transferrin receptor and several other iron metabolism genes are post-transcriptionally regulated. Iron regulatory proteins 1 and 2 are cytosolic proteins that bind to RNA stem-loops known as iron-responsive elements in several transcripts. We have studied the role of these proteins in knockout mice and discovered that misregulation of iron metabolism can be a primary cause of neurodegeneration.