Biological & Biomedical Seminar | Novel iron-regulating structures in pancreatic beta-cells, Nov. 13

The Biological Sciences & Biomedical Sciences Joint Research Seminar Series features presents Dr. Kira Slepchenko, currently a postdoc with Dr. Daewoo Lee from the Biological Sciences Department, present a seminar entitled “Novel iron-regulating structures in pancreatic beta-cells” on Nov. 13 at 4 p.m. in Irvine 159.  

Abstract: Research The proper regulation of iron is crucial to the function of all cells; however iron dysregulation leads to a newly described cell death ‐ ferroptosis. We describe a novel iron‐regulating modality found in pancreatic beta cells, which are dense structures that accumulate iron. Synchrotron X‐ray fluorescence revealed that intracellular iron puncta accumulate iron after exposure of beta cells to low doses of cytokines IL‐6 and IL‐1beta. Additionally, after exposure to iron, the puncta iron content significantly increases, suggesting that iron puncta respond to cellular stress by accumulating iron. Finally, we show that cytokine exposure increases the overall average iron density of puncta and protects pancreatic beta cells from ferroptosis, suggesting that iron puncta sequester iron and decrease susceptibility of pancreatic beta cells to factors/stressors that typically increase the risk of ferroptotic cell death.