Maintaining mammalian iron and oxygen homeostasis: Sensors, regulation, and cross-talk

Though iron and oxygen are required to sustain essential biological processes, an excess of either can result in oxidative stress. Therefore, mammals tightly regulate cellular and systemic iron and oxygen homeostasis. At the cellular level, the hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs) are key mediators of oxygen homeostasis through their regulation of genes involved in anaerobic metabolism and oxygen delivery, among others. Iron regulatory proteins (IRPs) largely govern cellular iron homeostasis through their effects on the translation and stability of mRNAs involved in iron uptake, utilization, export, and storage. Here, we describe regulatory factors for each pathway that sense both iron and oxygen availability and coordinate the maintenance of mammalian iron and oxygen homeostasis at both the cellular and systemic levels.