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Comparisons of copper deficiency states in the murine mutants blotchy and brindled. Changes in copper-dependent enzyme activity in 13-day-old mice.

ABSTRACT: The activity of two copper-dependent enzymes, cytochrome c oxidase and copper, zinc-superoxide dismutase, was determined in six tissues of age-matched (13-day-old) copper-deficient mutant and normal mice. In the two mutants 'brindled' and 'blotchy', brain, heart and skeletal muscle had significant enzyme deficiencies. Cytochrome c oxidase was more severely affected than was superoxide dismutase. In these three tissues the degree of deficiency could be correlated with decreased copper concentration; however, enzyme activity was normal in liver, kidney and lung, despite abnormal copper concentrations in these tissues. In nutritionally copper-deficient mice, all six tissues showed decreased enzyme activity, which was most marked in brain, heart and skeletal muscle, the tissues which showed enzyme deficiencies in the mutants. Analysis in vitro of cytochrome c oxidase (temperature coefficient = 2) at a single temperature was found to underestimate the deficiency of this enzyme in hypothermic copper-deficient animals. Cytochrome c oxidase deficiency may therefore be sufficiently severe in vivo to account for the clinical manifestations of copper deficiency. An injection of copper (50 micrograms of Cu+) at 7 days increased cytochrome c oxidase activity by 13 days in all deficient tissues of brindled mice, and in brain and heart from blotchy mice. However, skeletal-muscle cytochrome c oxidase in blotchy mutants did not respond to copper injection. Cytochrome c oxidase activity increased to normal in all tissues of nutritionally copper-deficient mice after copper injection, except in the liver. Hepatic enzyme activity remained severely deficient despite a liver copper concentration three times that found in copper-replete controls. Superoxide dismutase activity did not increase with treatment in either mutant, but its activity was higher than control levels in nutritionally deficient mice after injection. This difference is probably due to sequestration of copper in mutant tissue such as kidney, but a defect in the copper transport pathway to superoxide dismutase cannot be excluded.

SUBMITTER: Phillips M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1147113 | biostudies-other | 1986 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:During iron deficiency, perturbations in copper homeostasis have frequently been documented. Previous studies in iron-deprived rats demonstrated that enterocyte and hepatic copper levels increase and a copper transporter (the Menkes Copper ATPase; Atp7a) is induced in the duodenal epithelium in parallel to iron transport-related genes (e.g. Dmt1, Dcytb, Fpn1). Moreover, two ferroxidase proteins involved in iron homeostasis, hephaestin expressed in enterocytes and ceruloplasmin, produced and secreted into blood by the liver, are copper-dependent enzymes. We thus aimed to test the hypothesis that Atp7a function is important for the copper-related compensatory response of the intestinal epithelium to iron deficiency. Accordingly, iron homeostasis was studied for the first time in mice expressing a mutant Atp7a protein with minimal activity (Brindled [Mo (Br) (/y) ]). Mutant mice were rescued by perinatal copper injections, and, after a 7-8 week recovery period, were deprived of dietary iron for 3 weeks (along with WT littermates). Adult Mo (Br) (/y) mice displayed copper-deficiency anemia but had normal iron status; in contrast, iron-deprived Mo (Br) (/y) mice were iron deficient and more severely anemic with partial amelioration of the copper-deficient phenotype. Intestinal iron absorption in both genotypes (WT and Mo (Br) (/y) ) increased ∼3-fold when mice consumed a low-iron diet and ∼6-fold when mice were concurrently bled. WT mice exhibited no alterations in copper homeostasis in response to iron deprivation or phlebotomy. Conversely, upregulation of iron absorption was associated with increased enterocyte and liver copper levels and serum ferroxidase (ceruloplasmin) activity in Mo (Br) (/y) mice, typifying the response to iron deprivation in many mammalian species. We thus speculate that a copper threshold exists that is necessary to allow appropriate regulate of iron absorption. In summary, Mo (Br) (/y) mice were able to adequately regulate iron absorption, but unlike in WT mice, concurrent increases in enterocyte and liver copper levels and serum ferroxidase activity may have contributed to maintenance of iron homeostasis.

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Comparisons of copper deficiency states in the murine mutants blotchy and brindled. Changes in copper-dependent enzyme activity in 13-day-old mice.

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