CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The aim of this study was to summarize ferritin (Ft) general features and to characterize the effect of in vitro Ft supplementation on ascorbyl radical content in rat liver and brain. Analyses of the Ft peptides from horse liver and rat brain indicated that both proteins are composed by approximately 20 kDa protein subunits. Even though Fe was not released spontaneously from Ft, the supplementation with ascorbate to the reaction medium significantly released Fe from horse spleen Ft in a concentration dependent manner. Moreover, released Fe from Ft by endogenous reactions in rat liver and brain tissues catalyzed the generation of ascorbyl radical. Thus, the data presented here suggest that even though ascorbate is a powerful antioxidant at the cellular level, and Ft was long considered as a safe way to store Fe, the combination of both components in the same cellular compartment could result in cellular injury through the increased production of ascorbyl radical.