Role of Dcytb in dietary iron absorption

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Iron is an essential nutrient required by our bodies to make red blood cells and enzymes involved in energy production in our muscles. Eating a diet poor in iron leads to anaemia (lack of haemoglobin in red blood cells) and changes in energy metabolism leading to tiredness and fatigue. It is estimated by WHO that iron deficient anaemia affects millions of people worldwide. On the other hand, too much iron is also a health problem as in the disease haemochromatosis, where too much iron is absorbed from the diet leading to iron accumulation in tissues including the liver, heart and pancreas. Excess iron is toxic to cells causing organ damage. Therefore iron absorption from the diet must be tightly controlled. Over the past few years medical advances have identified several proteins expressed in the gastrointestinal tract that are responsible for absorption of dietary iron. These proteins are regulated by the body's iron stores so that we absorb the correct amount of iron from our diet. Our work aims to study one of these proteins (named Dcytb for duodenal cytochrome b). By studying iron absorption in mice in which the Dcytb gene has been lost we will increase our understanding of absorption of an essential nutrient.