Publication Date:
1992-07-24
Description:
The iron storage protein ferritin consists of a spherical polypeptide shell (apoferritin) surrounding a 6-nanometer inorganic core of the hydrated iron oxide ferrihydrite (5Fe2O3.9H2O). Previous studies have shown that the in vitro reconstitution of apoferritin yields mineral cores essentially identical to those of the native proteins. A magnetic mineral was synthesized within the nanodimensional cavity of horse spleen ferritin by the use of controlled reconstitution conditions. Transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction analysis indicate that the entrapped mineral particles are discrete 6-nanometer spherical single crystals of the ferrimagnetic iron oxide magnetite (Fe3O4). The resulting magnetic protein, "magnetoferritin," could have uses in biomedical imaging, cell labeling, and separation procedures.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Meldrum, F C -- Heywood, B R -- Mann, S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1992 Jul 24;257(5069):522-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Chemistry, University of Bath, United Kingdom.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1636086" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Ferric Compounds
;
Ferritins/*chemistry/ultrastructure
;
Horses
;
*Magnetics
;
Microscopy, Electron
;
Protein Conformation
;
Spleen/metabolism
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
