Role of Dcytb in dietary iron absorption

铁是我们身体所需的一种基本营养物质，可以制造红血球和参与肌肉能量生产的酶。缺乏铁的饮食会导致贫血(红细胞中缺乏血红蛋白)和能量代谢的变化，从而导致疲劳和疲劳。据世卫组织估计，全世界有数百万人患有缺铁性贫血。另一方面，过多的铁也是一个健康问题，就像在血色沉着症中一样，这种疾病从饮食中吸收了太多的铁，导致铁在肝脏、心脏和胰腺等组织中积累。过量的铁对细胞有毒性，会导致器官损伤。因此，必须严格控制饮食中铁的吸收。在过去的几年里，医学进步已经确定了几种在胃肠道表达的蛋白质，它们负责吸收膳食中的铁。这些蛋白质受体内铁储存的调节，以便我们从饮食中吸收适量的铁。我们的工作旨在研究其中的一种蛋白质(命名为Dcytb，即十二指肠细胞色素b)。通过研究Dcytb基因缺失的小鼠的铁吸收，我们将增加对一种基本营养物质吸收的理解。

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.