Pauline L. Lee

Iron, an essential element for life, is regulated primarily at the level of uptake, storage, and transport in order to maintain sufficient availability for normal physiology. The key protein in iron homeostasis is a 25-amino-acid peptide, hepcidin, which modulates the amount of iron in the circulation by binding and promoting the degradation of the iron exporter ferroportin. Given the central importance of hepcidin, recent studies have focused on how iron is sensed and how the iron signal is transmitted to hepcidin. Mutations in a type II serine protease, matriptase-2/TMPRSS6, were recently identified to be associated with severe iron deficiency caused by inappropriately high levels of hepcidin expression. A key biologically relevant substrate for the proteolytic activity of matriptase-2/TMPRSS6 was found to be hemojuvelin, a cell surface protein that regulates hepcidin expression through a BMP/SMAD pathway. In this review, we discuss the putative role of matriptase-2/TMPRSS6 in iron homeostasis.

Summary: Hepcidin, the master regulator of enteric iron absorption, is controlled by the opposing effects of pathways activated in response to iron excess or iron attenuation. Iron excess is regulated through a pathway involving the cell surface receptor hemojuvelin (HFE2) that stimulates expression of the hepcidin encoding gene (HAMP). Iron attenuation is countered through a pathway involving the hepatocyte‐specific plasma membrane protease matriptase‐2 encoded by TMPRSS6, leading to suppression of HAMP expression. The non‐redundant function of hemojuvelin and matriptase‐2 has been deduced from the phenotype imparted by mutations of HFE2 and TMPRSS6, which cause iron excess and iron deficiency respectively. Hemojuvelin is positioned to be the ideal substrate for matriptase‐2. To examine the relationship between hemojuvelin and matriptase‐2 in vivo, we crossed mice lacking the protease domain of matriptase‐2 with mice lacking hemojuvelin. Mice lacking functional matriptase‐2 and hemojuvelin exhibited low Hamp (Hamp1) expression, high serum and liver iron, and high transferrin saturation. Surprisingly, the double mutant mice also exhibited lower levels of iron in the heart compared to hemojuvelin‐deficient mice, demonstrating a possible cardioprotective effect resulting from the loss of matriptase‐2. This phenotype is consistent with hemojuvelin being a major substrate for matriptase‐2/TMPRSS6 protease activity.

Hepcidin, a 25-amino-acid antimicrobial peptide, is the central regulator of iron homeostasis. Hepcidin transcription is upregulated by inflammatory cytokines, iron, and bone morphogenetic proteins and is downregulated by iron deficiency, ineffective erythropoiesis, and hypoxia. The iron transporter ferroportin is the cognate receptor of hepcidin and is destroyed as a result of interaction with the peptide. Except for inherited defects of ferroportin and hepcidin itself, all forms of iron-storage disease appear to arise from hepcidin dysregulation. Studies using multiple approaches have begun to delineate the molecular mechanisms that regulate hepcidin expression, particularly at the transcriptional level. Knowledge of the regulation of hepcidin by inflammation, iron, erythropoiesis, and hypoxia will lead to an understanding of the pathogenesis of primary hemochromatosis, secondary iron overload, and anemia of inflammatory disease.