Storage Iron Kinetics. IV. Cellular Distribution of Ferritin Iron Stores in Rat Liver

A study has been undertaken in rats to determine the distribution of ferritin iron stores between reticuloendothelial and parenchymal cells of the liver. After selective radioiron labeling of the reticuloendothelial cell ferritin compartment with heat-damaged erythrocytes, the ratio of specific activities of ferritin extracted from whole liver and from isolated Kupffer cells provided a measure of the size of ferritin iron stores within each cellular compartment. Kupffer cells were found to account for only 2.6% of total hepatic ferritin, indicating that in the rat, hepatic ferritin can be equated with parenchymal ferritin stores.