Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2020 May 11;21(9):3395. doi: 10.3390/ijms21093395

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2020 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PMC Copyright notice

Role of Ferritin (FER) in preventing Haber–Weiss and Fenton reactions that can perpetuate the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). FER is expressed under normal conditions to prevent accumulation of free Fe and avoid excessive build up of ROS. If FER cannot capture free Fe, Haber–Weiss reactions, which are catalyzed by free Fe, can lead to the build up of hydroxyl radicals (•OH). These reactions occur in two steps. First, Fe²⁺ and oxygen are produced from Fe³⁺ and superoxide. Second, the Fe²⁺ can react with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to produce Fe³⁺ and harmful hydroxyl radicals in a Fenton reaction.