Abstract
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a convenient tool to evaluate iron metabolism as it shares great orthology with human proteins involved in iron transport, in addition to being transparent and readily available. In this work, we describe how wild-type (N2) C. elegans nematodes in the first larval stage can be loaded with acetomethoxycalcein (CAL-AM) and study it as a whole-organism model for both iron speciation and chelator permeability of the labile iron pool (LIP). This model may be relevant for high throughput assessment of molecules intended for chelation therapy of iron overload diseases.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the kind assistance of Dr. Tao Ke with the microscopy images. BPE acknowledges funding from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP 18/19684-0) and a travel grant from the Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (CAPES 88887.371500/2019-00). MA was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) R01ES10563 and R01ES07331.
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FAPESP 18/19684-0; CAPES 88887.371500/2019-00; NIEHS R01ES10563 and R01ES07331.
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Espósito, B.P., Martins, A.C., de Carvalho, R.R.V. et al. High throughput fluorimetric assessment of iron traffic and chelation in iron-overloaded Caenorhabditis elegans. Biometals 33, 255–267 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-020-00250-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-020-00250-4