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Our long term goal is to understand exactly how Cu is taken up by cells from its blood plasma carriers and how this is regulated in lactation. To investigate the possibility that DMT1 might at least partly be involved, we compared the organ distribution of tracer ⁶⁴Cu(II) 1h after injection i.p. into non‐lactating and lactating Belgrade rats (with defective DMT1) and their wild type (Fisher) counterparts. No differences were observed. Both kinds of nonlactating rats had ~70% of the administered ⁶⁴Cu in the liver and kidney. Two‐5 days post‐partum this was reduced to ~45% in both kinds of rats, and the lactating mammary gland took up ~25%. The proportion of radioactivity appearing in the milk (relative to blood plasma) was also unaltered. Confirmatory studies carried out in cultured cell models for hepatocytes and mammary epithelial cells (HepG2 and PMC42, respectively) determined that 1–10 uM Cu uptake from its …