Ferritin Content in Human Cancerous and Noncancerous Colonic Tissue

Abstract

Tumor tissue samples from 25 patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon, twelve related samples of normal colons as well as five serum specimens from the same patients were analyzed for ferritin. The average ferritin content of the tumor tissue was 788 ng/mcp with a range of 47-1,745 ng/mcp. The average ferritin content of normal colon mucosa was 115 ng/mcp with a range of 32-230 ng/mcp. Two specimens of metastatic colon cancer taken from the retroperitoneal space and liver, respectively, contained 3,867 and 2,827 ng/mcp of ferritin. The ferritin content of the tumor tissue was higher than that of the normal colon in 8 of 9 patients who had specimens obtained from both sites. The amount of ferritin found in tumor tissue was independent of sex, age, and the site of the original tumor. This study shows that the ferritin content of colon neoplasms is elevated and indicates that the tumor tissue may be the direct source of elevated serum levels of ferritin previously observed in cancer patients.

Ferritin Heavy Chain–Mediated Iron Homeostasis and Subsequent Increased Reactive Oxygen Species Production Are Essential for Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition

“…Ferritin is abundant in some cell lines derived from colon cancer (27), breast cancer (28), and other types of carcinomas (Expression Profile from National Center for Biotechnology Information UniGene database). Nevertheless, it has been reported that FHC level was relatively low in the high metastatic tumor lines compared with the low metastatic lines, which exhibited better differentiated phenotype in bladder tumor model (29) and adenoid cystic carcinoma (30).…”

The Evolution of Iron Chelators for the Treatment of Iron Overload Disease and Cancer

“…This is reflected by the fact that tumor cells have higher numbers of Tf receptors on their cell surface, mediating a high rate of iron uptake Baker, 1990, 1992;Trinder et al, 1996; for reviews, see Kwok and Richardson, 2002;Le and Richardson, 2002). Production of the iron storage protein, ferritin, is also increased in tumor tissue (Vaughn et al, 1987). In addition, RR is up-regulated in cancerous cells, facilitating the production of deoxyribonucleotides for DNA replication and subsequent cell division (Elford et al, 1970).…”

FER-1, an Enhancer of the Ferritin H Gene and a Target of E1A-Mediated Transcriptional Repression

“…FER-1 is the E1A-responsive element of the ferritin H gene. Although alterations in ferritin composition in some tumor cells have been reported (10,50), the mechanisms underlying this change remain unknown. Using cells transfected with adenovirus E1A, a defined oncogene, we previously observed that E1A preferentially represses transcription of the H subunit of ferritin in mouse NIH 3T3 cells, resulting in ferritin molecules with altered H/L subunit ratios (46).…”

“…Neoplastic cells exhibit an alteration in ferritin composition or content compared with their normal counterparts (10,50), although the mechanism(s) by which these responses are mediated remains unknown. We have recently demonstrated that stable expression of the adenovirus early region 1A oncogene (E1A) alters the composition of ferritin protein in mouse NIH 3T3 fibroblasts via a preferential repression of ferritin H transcription (46).…”