Life Sciences Commons^™

Characterizing Ferroportin Trafficking In Macrophages During Phagocytosis, Tayler J. Farrell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Macrophages are important mediators of innate immunity and nutritional immunity via modulation of essential nutrients like iron during bacterial infection. Ferroportin (Fpn), an iron-exporting protein, is found on the plasma membrane of macrophages and, if not modulated during phagocytosis, would transport iron into phagosomes and supply phagocytosed bacteria with iron. Interestingly, the fate of Fpn during phagocytosis and bacterial infection remains unknown. We generated a Fpn-GFP fusion protein and, using fluorescence microscopy, demonstrated that, during phagocytosis in RAW264.7 macrophages, Fpn is removed from phagosomes containing IgG-coated beads or Staphylococcus aureus. Further, Fpn is present on Rab5-containing phagosomes but absent …