Oral Administration of FA-GDLVs Loaded with DMT1 siRNA Mitigated Iron Loading in Hepc−/− Mice
19-day-old female Hepc−/− mice were orally gavaged with saline (control), negative control-siRNA FA-GDLVs (NC), or Dmt1-siRNA FA-GDLVs daily for 16 days. Mice were provided a standard chow diet on days 1–8 and then a semi-purified, low-iron diet on days 9–16. Shown is Dmt1 mRNA expression in isolated intestinal epithelial cells (A), serum ferritin concentrations (B), serum non-heme Fe concentrations (C), TSAT (D), and liver (E), kidney (F), pancreas (G), and heart (H) non-heme Fe concentrations. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and are presented as boxplots for n = 6–11 mice/group. Groups labeled with different letters are different from one another: p < 0.0001 (A and F); p = 0.0138 (B); p = 0.0007 (C); p = 0.0001 (D); p = 0.0011 (E); p = 0.002 (G); p = 0.0003 (H).