Evidence for a sequential transfer of iron amongst ferritin, transferrin and transferrin receptor during duodenal absorption of iron in rat and human

Figure 1 Ferritin takes up radiolabelled iron in a time dependent manner and has a direct role in iron absorption: Upper panel: Autoradiogram of duodenal proteins. Duodenal mucosal proteins (100 μg) obtained after 15 min, 30 min, 1 h after an oral dose of 7-10 μCi of ⁵⁹FeCl₃ were subjected to 4%-20% PAGE and dehydrated. The radioactive bands were developed on X-ray film. As shown in the figure, one radioactive band corresponding to ferritin whose intensity was maximal at 30 min and then decreased with time. Lower panel: These proteins were subjected to western blot with ferritin antibody.