Mycobacteria-induced anaemia revisited: A molecular approach reveals the involvement of NRAMP1 and lipocalin-2, but not of hepcidin

Abstract Anaemia is a frequent complication of chronic infectious diseases but the exact mechanisms by which it develops remain to be clarified. In the present work, we used a mouse model of mycobacterial infection to study molecular alterations of iron metabolism induced by infection. We show that four weeks after infection with Mycobacterium avium BALB/c mice exhibited a moderate anaemia, which was not accompanied by an increase on hepatic hepcidin mRNA expression. Instead, infected mice presented increased mRNA expression of ferroportin ( Slc40a1 ), ceruloplasmin ( Cp ), hemopexin ( Hpx ), heme-oxygenase-1 ( Hmox1 ) and lipocalin-2 ( Lcn2 ). Both the anaemia and the mRNA expression changes of iron-related genes were largely absent in C.D2 mice which bear a functional allele of the Nramp1 gene. Data presented in this work suggest that anaemia due to a chronic mycobacterial infection may develop in the absence of elevated hepcidin expression, is influenced by Nramp1 and may involve lipocalin-2.