Doctoral Degrees (Chemical Pathology)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Chemical Pathology) by Author "Zaahl, Monique G. (Monique Glenda)"

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    Mutational analysis of the solute carrier family 11 member 1 gene (SLC11A1) implicated in iron transport
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2003-12) Zaahl, Monique G. (Monique Glenda); Kotze, Maritha J.; Warnich, L.; Winter, T. A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Biomedical Sciences.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The solute carrier family 11 member 1 gene (SLC11A 1) is a divalent metal ion transporter with various pleiotropic effects on macrophage function. This gene that regulates iron, and is also regulated by cellular iron levels, has previously been linked to many infectious and autoimmune diseases. In this analysis, in vitro studies using the luciferase reporter system as well as case-control association studies were applied to investigate the significance of SLC11 A1 allelic variation in patients with diverse disease phenotypes. For in vitro studies, five different SLC11A 1 promoter constructs were generated, followed by transfection into U937 and THP-1 cells. The inserted fragments included two previously described alleles (alleles 2 and 3), two novel alleles identified in this study (alleles 8 and 9) and a C to T point mutation at nucleotide position -237 in the presence of allele 3. The most striking finding was the opposite effect observed for allele 3 in the presence of the -237C~ T polymorphism, similar to that of allele 2. Although the SLC11A 1 gene has previously been implicated in iron transport, we have demonstrated, for the first time, that the various alleles investigated cause differential expression of the gene upon iron loading. Association studies were performed by investigating diseases including oesophageal cancer (DC), inflammatory bowel disease (lBO) and hereditary haemochromatosis (HH) (or primary iron overload). Significant associations (P