Figure 3.

ER stress and inflammation dysregulate cellular iron homeostasis. THP-1 cells (1 × 10⁶ cells/mL) were treated with tunicamycin (10 μg/mL) or DMSO overnight prior to LPS exposure (40 ng/mL) for 6 hr. ((a), (b)) Hepcidin and ferroportin (FPN1) gene expression was assessed by quantitative RT-PCR normalized to β-actin. The fold change in hepcidin and FPN1 gene expression was calculated in reference to DMSO treated control THP-1 cells using the ΔΔCT method and presented here normalized to no treatment control. Error bars represent the SD from the mean of three independent experiments. P values were calculated in reference to vehicle (DMSO) treatment control using one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni multiple comparisons post hoc analysis. P values annotated ^*** P < 0.0001; ^** P = 0.001–0.01; ^* P = 0.01–0.05; P > 0.05 were not significant (NS).