The interplay between iron regulation and ferroptosis cell death signaling

Iron is an important ion that is mainly involved in different aspects of cellular metabolism. Normally, iron homeostasis is regulated by storage and transport proteins that help stabilize and facilitate transport throughout the body. Transferrin is the main iron transport protein in the blood; it transports ferric iron (Fe3+) from absorption sites to different tissue cells via endocytosis upon interacting with the transferrin receptor. In the cell, in addition to the cytoplasm, mitochondria are heavily involved in iron metabolism. The excess of labile (free unbound) iron in the cell can undergo the Fenton reaction to further enhance ROS production inevitably leading to cell death through apoptosis and/or ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is a new type of cell death that is mediated by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and is associated with a myriad of diseases such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer, among others. Mitochondria are involved in ferroptotic cell death signaling, nevertheless, the exact mechanisms underlying the contribution of mitochondria to ferroptotic signaling remain unknown. This study was performed to elucidate the effects of iron on cell viability and mitochondrial function in cardiomyocytes. H9c2 cardiomyocytes were cultured in the presence/absence of ferric ammonium citrate (FAC, 200 and 400 μM), tert-butyl hydroxide (TBH, 10 and 100 μM), and deferoxamine (DFO, 200 and 400 μM) individually and in combination. Cell death was quantified by the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in the culture media whereas mitochondrial function was estimated by changes in the mitochondrial membrane potential measured by using TMRM, a potential-sensitive fluorescent dye. Our results show that TBH at low concentrations or FAC at both low and high concentrations did not induce cell death. However, FAC at high concentration (400 μM) in combination with TBH (10 μM) significantly increased cell death. Additionally, DFO alone induced cell death, demonstrating the importance of maintaining iron balance in cellular media. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the detrimental effects of iron (FAC) on cell viability are increased in the presence of oxidative stress (TBH) in H9c2 cardiomyocytes. This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (Grant R16GM145390). This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.