Iron and cell overgrowth in pulmonary arterial hypertension

The disrupted hepcidin/ferroportin axis and proliferative responses in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Dr Gregory Quinlan and his team at Imperial College London are looking at the role of iron in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a serious condition where people have high blood pressure in the arteries of their lungs. In PAH, lung blood vessels narrow because the numbers of cells within the vessels grow, or proliferate. Cells need iron to grow and our bodies also need it to make haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells. We know that in PAH the body cannot handle iron correctly - too little iron is absorbed from food, so there isn’t enough for haemoglobin production, but at the same time, cells tend to store more iron. So iron levels in lung artery cells are higher, which may boost cell growth, leading to artery narrowing. In this project, Dr Quinlan will study how iron storage is controlled in lung artery cells and how these processes are involved in lung artery cell growth. He will also test if a treatment that reverses iron accumulation can reverse blood vessel cell growth and if it could be used to treat PAH. Understanding more about the role of iron in PAH could be helpful in identifying new ways to treat this condition.