Effects of dietary phosphorus restriction on hepatic iron content and inflammatory markers.

<p>Eight-week old C57BL/6J male mice were fed a diet containing 0.02% inorganic phosphorus (LP) for 2 weeks and compared to age matched C57BL/6J male mice fed normal phosphorus diet (0.6% Pi; CONT). Liver samples were collected at the end of the experiment. (A) Iron content in the liver assessed by the ferrozine colorimetric assay, (B) Representative images of Prussian blue staining for liver iron accumulation (Blue, iron; pink, hepatic nuclei and cytoplasm. (C-F) Quantitative real-time RT-PCR for hepatic inflammatory marker expression. Data are expressed as fold change (2-ΔΔCt) relative to housekeeping gene Hprt. (C) Hepcidin, (D) IL-6, (E) TNF-α, and (F) IL-1β. For samples with normal distribution and equal variances, unpaired t test was performed compared to WT (A, C, D, E). When the samples were in normal distribution but not in homogeneity of variance, the data were analyzed by Welch’s t test (F). *P <0.05 compared to CONT (control diet).</p> <p>(PDF)</p>