Fig. 2
Iron metabolism in macrophages obtained from SCD pediatric/young patients. Evaluation of hepcidin (a) release from sickle cell disease (SCD) macrophages compared to healthy donors’ (HD) macrophages, revealed through an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The graphs show hepcidin levels (pg/mL) as the mean ± standard deviation (SD). An unpaired t-test was performed for statistical analysis. FPN1 (b), TfR1 (d), and DMT1 (e) protein expression levels in SCD macrophages of pediatric/young patients’ compared to HD, evaluated by Western blotting, starting from 15 µg of total lysates. The most representative images are displayed. The protein bands were detected through Image Lab Ink 6.1 software “BIORAD”, the intensity ratios of immunoblots compared to CTR, taken as 1, were quantified after normalizing with the respective controls. The relative quantification for these proteins, normalized for the housekeeping protein β-Actin, is represented in the histograms as the mean ± SD. An unpaired t-test was performed for statistical analysis. Original blots/gels are presented in Supplementary Uncropped WB Figures. Fe3+ (c) intracellular concentrations (nmol/µL) in HD and SCD macrophages of pediatric/young patients’, determined by iron assay. Histogram shows Fe3 + concentration as the mean ± SD. An unpaired t-test was performed for statistical analysis. * p ≤ 0.05 compared to HD.
