Iron overload in cultured rat myocardial cells

In order to characterize the nature of iron deposits associated with iron overload in heart cells, Mössbauer spectroscopy and ultrastructural studies were performed in iron loaded heart cell cultures obtained from newborn rats grown in a medium containing 20 μg iron/ml. Maximal uptake of iron after 24 hrs was about 15%. Not more than 20% of the iron in these cells was stored in ferritin and the rest was found in smaller trivalent iron aggregates. With time there was a shift from smaller to larger aggregates. In chase samples there was only a very limited spontaneous release of iron from heart cells. Desferrioxamine, an iron chelating drug, removed a major part of the smaller aggregates, but did not remove ferritin iron.