Use of iron from transferrin and microbial chelates as substrate for heme synthetase in transformed and primary erythroid cell cultures.

The enzymatic heme production in cell-free extracts of virus-transformed Friend erythroleukemia cells and primary bone marrow cells from rabbits has been measured by determining the activity of heme synthetase after addition of iron sulfate, transferrin or microbial iron chelates. In transformed cells the amounts of heme formed did not show significant difeerences independent of which substrate was offered. In cell-free extracts of primary bone marrow cells no increase of heme production could be observed.