Regulation of transferrin gene expression.

Transferrin (Tf) is the iron-transport protein of vertebrate serum. It is essentially synthesized in the liver, but lower amounts are also produced in other organs, such as testis and brain. A number of studies have been done to characterize the transcriptional elements implicated in the regulation of Tf gene expression in different organs. The results of these studies support the hypothesis that the Tf gene makes use of different combinations of nuclear proteins in different subsets of cells to achieve tissue-specific expression. It is interesting to point out that this occurs in tissues arising from different embryological origin.