title: Computerized image analysis of iron-stained macrophages.
abstract: Analysis of iron levels in single cells is critical to understand the consequences of impaired regulation of iron homeostasis. Here we establish a method to analyze intracellular iron deposits by computerized image analysis of Prussian blue-stained alveolar macrophages as a test system. We efficiently detected small differences in macrophage steady-state iron levels in Hfe (-/-) mice as well as inflammation-induced iron sequestration upon lipopolysaccharide instillation. In conclusion, computerized image analysis of single cells is a robust and reproducible tool suitable for iron measurements in small sample sets with limited cell yield.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology, Immunology and Pulmonology, University Hospital of Heidelberg, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Karolina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Benesova
authors.forename: Sebastian M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.forename: Marcus A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mall
authors.forename: Martina U
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Muckenthaler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005295:Ferrocyanides / Q000032:analysis; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007501:Iron / Q000032:analysis*; D016676:Macrophages, Alveolar / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D011897:Random Allocation; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005295:Ferrocyanides; D007501:Iron; C000170:ferric ferrocyanide