Chronic inflammation increases sequestration of iron in the liver and kidney. A) Perls’ reaction is positive in the epithelial cells lining the kidney proximal tubules and Bowman’s capsule (panels 1 & 2). Perls’ positive granules are also evident in the hepatocytes and Kupffer cells (panels 3 & 4). Scale bar, 10 μm. B) Western blot of liver homogenates shows upregulation of ferritin by LPS (lanes 1 & 2), a significant amount of which partitions in the detergent-insoluble fraction (lanes 3 & 4). C) Quantification shows 1.3-fold increase in ferritin in the total lysate, and 1.2 and 3-fold increase in ferritin in the soluble and insoluble fractions respectively by LPS. D) Quantitative analysis of mRNA levels shows a significant increase in Hamp1 (hepcidin) mRNA after 6 h, and a fall to near control levels after 4 days of LPS (p < 0.01). mRNA levels for Fpn, on the other hand, remain low after 6 h and 4 days of LPS treatment (p < 0.05).