The hepcidin regulator erythroferrone is a new member of the erythropoiesis-iron-bone circuitry
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States
- UCLA, United States
- Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, United States
- Intrinsic Lifesciences, LLC, United States
- Saint Louis University, United States
Abstract
Background: Erythroblast erythroferrone (ERFE) secretion inhibits hepcidin expression by sequestering several bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family members to increase iron availability for erythropoiesis.
Methods: To address whether ERFE functions also in bone and whether the mechanism of ERFE action in bone involves BMPs, we utilize the Erfe-/- mouse model as well as β–thalassemic (Hbbth3/+) mice with systemic loss of ERFE expression. In additional, we employ comprehensive skeletal phenotyping analyses as well as functional assays in vitro to address mechanistically the function of ERFE in bone.
Results: We report that ERFE expression in osteoblasts is higher compared with erythroblasts, is independent of erythropoietin, and functional in suppressing hepatocyte hepcidin expression. Erfe-/- mice display low–bone–mass arising from increased bone resorption despite a concomitant increase in bone formation. Consistently, Erfe-/- osteoblasts exhibit enhanced mineralization, Sost and Rankl expression, and BMP–mediated signaling ex vivo. The ERFE effect on osteoclasts is mediated through increased osteoblastic RANKL and sclerostin expression, increasing osteoclastogenesis in Erfe-/- mice. Importantly, Erfe loss in Hbbth3/+ mice, a disease model with increased ERFE expression, triggers profound osteoclastic bone resorption and bone loss.
Conclusions: Together, ERFE exerts an osteoprotective effect by modulating BMP signaling in osteoblasts, decreasing RANKL production to limit osteoclastogenesis, and prevents excessive bone loss during expanded erythropoiesis in β–thalassemia.
Funding: Y.Z.G. acknowledges the support of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) (R01 DK107670 to Y.Z.G. and DK095112 to R.F., S.R., and Y.Z.G.). M.Z. acknowledges the support of the National Institute on Aging (U19 AG60917) and NIDDK (R01 DK113627). T.Y. acknowledges the support of the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG71870). S.R. acknowledges the support of NIDDK (R01 DK090554) and Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (C.U.R.E.) Program Pennsylvania.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK107670)
- Yelena Ginzburg
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK095112)
- Robert Fleming
- Stefano Rivella
- Yelena Ginzburg
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK113627)
- Mone Zaidi
National Institute on Aging (AG60917)
- Mone Zaidi
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK09055)
- Stefano Rivella
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (#16-0143) of the Icahn School of Medicine.
Copyright
© 2021, Castro-Mollo et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,322
- views
-
- 269
- downloads
-
- 20
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
The hepcidin regulator erythroferrone is a new member of the erythropoiesis-iron-bone circuitry
eLife 10:e68217.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68217
Further reading
-
- Medicine
- Neuroscience
Interactions between top-down attention and bottom-up visceral inputs are assumed to produce conscious perceptions of interoceptive states, and while each process has been independently associated with aberrant interoceptive symptomatology in psychiatric disorders, the neural substrates of this interface are unknown. We conducted a preregistered functional neuroimaging study of 46 individuals with anxiety, depression, and/or eating disorders (ADE) and 46 propensity-matched healthy comparisons (HC), comparing their neural activity across two interoceptive tasks differentially recruiting top-down or bottom-up processing within the same scan session. During an interoceptive attention task, top-down attention was voluntarily directed towards cardiorespiratory or visual signals. In contrast, during an interoceptive perturbation task, intravenous infusions of isoproterenol (a peripherally-acting beta-adrenergic receptor agonist) were administered in a double-blinded and placebo-controlled fashion to drive bottom-up cardiorespiratory sensations. Across both tasks, neural activation converged upon the insular cortex, localizing within the granular and ventral dysgranular subregions bilaterally. However, contrasting hemispheric differences emerged, with the ADE group exhibiting (relative to HCs) an asymmetric pattern of overlap in the left insula, with increased or decreased proportions of co-activated voxels within the left or right dysgranular insula, respectively. The ADE group also showed less agranular anterior insula activation during periods of bodily uncertainty (i.e. when anticipating possible isoproterenol-induced changes that never arrived). Finally, post-task changes in insula functional connectivity were associated with anxiety and depression severity. These findings confirm the dysgranular mid-insula as a key cortical interface where attention and prediction meet real-time bodily inputs, especially during heightened awareness of interoceptive states. Furthermore, the dysgranular mid-insula may indeed be a ‘locus of disruption’ for psychiatric disorders.
-
- Medicine
Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is a gut-derived hormone secreted by intestinal L cells and vital for postprandial glycemic control. As open-type enteroendocrine cells, whether L cells can sense mechanical stimuli caused by chyme and thus regulate GLP-1 synthesis and secretion is unexplored. Molecular biology techniques revealed the expression of Piezo1 in intestinal L cells. Its level varied in different energy status and correlates with blood glucose and GLP-1 levels. Mice with L cell-specific loss of Piezo1 (Piezo1 IntL-CKO) exhibited impaired glucose tolerance, increased body weight, reduced GLP-1 production and decreased CaMKKβ/CaMKIV-mTORC1 signaling pathway under normal chow diet or high-fat diet. Activation of the intestinal Piezo1 by its agonist Yoda1 or intestinal bead implantation increased the synthesis and secretion of GLP-1, thus alleviated glucose intolerance in diet-induced-diabetic mice. Overexpression of Piezo1, Yoda1 treatment or stretching stimulated GLP-1 production and CaMKKβ/CaMKIV-mTORC1 signaling pathway, which could be abolished by knockdown or blockage of Piezo1 in primary cultured mouse L cells and STC-1 cells. These experimental results suggest a previously unknown regulatory mechanism for GLP-1 production in L cells, which could offer new insights into diabetes treatments.
