Intestinal transferrin receptors and iron absorption in the neonatal rat

The transferrin receptor is a major protein found on the basolateral membranes of intestinal epithelial cells, yet its possible role in intestinal iron metabolism and also in iron absorption is unclear. We have studied intestinal transferrin receptor expression during the peri- and postnatal development of the small intestine of the rat using immunohistochemistry with a monoclonal antibody to the rat receptor. Two major changes in transferrin receptor expression in the developing small intestine were found, a decrease in receptor expression associated with birth, and an increase at the time of weaning. Around the time of weaning there was a large decrease in iron absorption, but there was no direct correlation between absorption and transferrin receptor expression. However, at both birth and weaning there were major changes in intestinal cell kinetics, and the distribution of receptor correlated well with the distribution of proliferating cell populations. In addition, as the intestinal epithelial cells differentiated and stopped dividing, there was a redistribution of transferrin receptors from the cell surface to intracellular sites. These data suggest that the most likely role of the transferrin receptor in the neonatal intestine is in the supply of iron to the developing epithelial cells in the crypts, and that the receptor does not play a direct role in iron transit across the intestinal epithelium.