Analysis of iron transport function.

The iron transport function of wild-type DMT1 and truncated DMT1^te216 was tested by transfection of 293T cells with either vector alone (control) or plasmids expressing either wild-type (DMT1) or mutant (DMT1^te216) protein. Cells were incubated in 1 μM ⁵⁵Fe-NTA for 20 minutes then washed and counted in a scintillation counter. The data are expressed as fold induction of ⁵⁵Fe uptake compared to cells transfected with the expression vector alone. Wild-type DMT1-expressing cells take up 9.6-fold more iron than vector-alone transfected cells (SD ± 1.4). In contrast, cells expressing DMT1^te216 only take up an average of 1.15-fold more iron (SD ± 0.16).