[The effect of erythropoitin and thyroid hormone on K562 iron metabolism].

Objective: To explore the effect of recombinant human erythropoitin (rhEPO) and T3 on the iron metabolism of K562 cells and its possible mechanism.

Methods: With the use of the bone marrow iron stain method, the positive stained cells rate was calculated. Flow cytometry was performed to detect the transferrin receptor (TfR) expression of K562 cells.

Results: rhEPO increased the positive cell rate of iron stain, which was especially noticeable in the rhEPO 5 U/ml group (P < 0.01), and the effect was time-dependant, i.e., the longer the incubating time, the higher the positive rate. T3 also elevated the positive cell rate of iron stain significantly at different concentrations, and the highest rate was seen when incubating K562 cells for 48 hours. The expression of TfR was increased significantly when incubating with rhEPO for 72 hours (P < 0.05), but there was no marked change when incubating with T3.

Conclusion: The possible mechanism by which rhEPO increased the positive cell rate of iron stain might be due to the enhancement of TfR expression and hence the increase in iron intake of K562 cells.