Fig. 4

Differences in baseline iron uptake. When pooling the ⁵⁵Fe present in both MV and brain parenchyma fractions (A), females take up significantly more ⁵⁵Fe when bound to Tf than Fth1. Of note, the variability of ⁵⁵Fe-Tf uptake and release in females is substantial. The coefficient of variability of the sham condition in females is 45.09%. The corresponding coefficient of variability of this condition in males is 17.43%. When further exploring the proportion of ⁵⁵Fe-Tf that is released into the brain to the amount that is taken up into the MVs, females release significantly more of the iron the MVs take up compared to males (B). There was no difference between males and females on the proportion of ⁵⁵Fe-Fth1 release to uptake (C). n = 5 to 6 for all conditions, means of biological replicates ± SD were evaluated for statistical significance using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s posttest for significance for A. Proportions of release to uptake for each infusion condition were calculated and plotted, means ± SD were evaluated for statistical significance using unpaired t-test for significance for B and C. * p < 0.05