title: Mycobacteria-induced anaemia revisited: a molecular approach reveals the involvement of NRAMP1 and lipocalin-2, but not of hepcidin.
abstract: Anaemia is a frequent complication of chronic infectious diseases but the exact mechanisms by which it develops remain to be clarified. In the present work, we used a mouse model of mycobacterial infection to study molecular alterations of iron metabolism induced by infection. We show that four weeks after infection with Mycobacterium avium BALB/c mice exhibited a moderate anaemia, which was not accompanied by an increase on hepatic hepcidin mRNA expression. Instead, infected mice presented increased mRNA expression of ferroportin (Slc40a1), ceruloplasmin (Cp), hemopexin (Hpx), heme-oxygenase-1 (Hmox1) and lipocalin-2 (Lcn2). Both the anaemia and the mRNA expression changes of iron-related genes were largely absent in C.D2 mice which bear a functional allele of the Nramp1 gene. Data presented in this work suggest that anaemia due to a chronic mycobacterial infection may develop in the absence of elevated hepcidin expression, is influenced by Nramp1 and may involve lipocalin-2.
authors: IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal. prodrigu@ibmc.up.pt
authors: Pedro N
authors: PN
authors: Rodrigues
authors: Sandro S
authors: SS
authors: Gomes
authors: João V
authors: JV
authors: Neves
authors: Sandra
authors: S
authors: Gomes-Pereira
authors: Margarida
authors: M
authors: Correia-Neves
authors: Cláudio
authors: C
authors: Nunes-Alves
authors: Jens
authors: J
authors: Stolte
authors: Mayka
authors: M
authors: Sanchez
authors: Rui
authors: R
authors: Appelberg
authors: Martina U
authors: MU
authors: Muckenthaler
authors: M Salomé
authors: MS
authors: Gomes