Induction and Repression of Genes of the Rat Small Intestine Mucosa with Excess and Insufficiency of Alimentary Iron

M. A. Terentiev,¹ E. V. Terentieva,¹ T. V. Kapelinskaya,¹ L. A. Zamchuk,¹ O. V. Makarova,¹ I. K. Smirnov,¹ and V. K. Ravin^1,2

¹Bioengineering Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. 60-letiya Oktyabrya 7/1, Moscow, 117312 Russia; fax: (7-095) 135-05-71; E-mail: ravin@klest.msk.su

²To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Submitted May 15, 1996; revision submitted October 13, 1996.

Three-month-old Wistar rats were fed with either an iron-deficient diet for 21 days or an iron-excessive diet for 10 days. Fifty thousand clones of a cDNA library of small intestine mucosa were hybridized with two radioactive samples synthesized on mRNA from the small intestine of rats fed with iron-excessive or iron-deficient diets. As a result, genes were found with mRNA level depending on the content of alimentary iron. Iron deficiency increased the mRNA level of genes of apolipoprotein AIV and class 1 antigen and decreased the mRNA level of the apolipoprotein AI gene and of an unknown gene, while no change was found in the mRNA level of the gene of fatty acid-binding protein. Excess of dietary iron resulted in the increase in mRNA of this gene and in a decrease in the apolipoprotein AI gene and in the unknown gene. The mRNA of apolipoprotein AIV did not change. The data indicate that changes in the level of alimentary iron influence the expression of genes involved in metabolism of lipids.

KEY WORDS: intestine, apolipoprotein, iron, gene expression.

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