Iron metabolism in Hfe mutant mice. (a) Liver iron content was determined for 4-week-old 129/SvEvTac mice as previously described10 and expressed as micrograms per gram wet weight ± standard error. Genotypes are abbreviated as follows: wild-type (+/+), Hfe C282Y homozygous (Y/Y ), andHfe null homozygous (−/−). All differences between genotypes were statistically significant when P values were determined by Welch correction of the unpaired t-test. (b) Hepatic iron was visualized by Prussian blue staining of tissue sections from wild-type and mutant F2 mice with a C57BL/6J × 129/SvEvTac background. Nonheme iron deposits appear blue. (c) Spleen iron was determined for 4-week-old 129/SvEvTac mice using the same method as was used for liver iron, and expressed as microgram per gram wet weight ± standard error. Differences between wild-type mice and each mutant strain were statistically significant according toP values determined by Welch correction of the unpairedt-test. The mutant strains were not significantly different from each other.
