Ferritin Lab Report

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The determination of Iron content in Ferritin practical.
Introduction:
Ferritin is a protein in the body and it acts as a storage to the Iron, in non-toxic way. Iron un-bound to ferritin forms a complex is call Apoferritin. Unbound to iron the protein complex ferritin is known as Apoferritin. Within this complex the agent that releases the Iron is Ferrozine²¯. Iron(Fe(II)) Iron bonds to the Ferrozine to create the purple ferritin complex.
It has a very unique structure which forms a spherical shell in which the Iron is stored in a crystalline mineral. The structure of Ferritin consists of 24 peptide subunits which form 2 different types of channels. One of the channels are a 3-fold channel which is polar and the other …show more content…

Start to prepare the sample in a 10mL (10000µm) place 0.4mL (400µm) of the stock Ferritin solution 0.5g/mL in 0.15M sodium acetate (AcONa). Afterwards add 0.8mL (800µm) at 2M of sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) and 0.8mL (800µm) at 5mM of dihydroxyfumarate (C₄H₄O₆). Wait for 30 minutes then complement the solution with 1.6mL (1600µm) at 2.5M of sodium acetate (NaOAc) followed by 0.8mL (800µm) at 12.5mM ferrozine (C20H12N4Na2O6S2). Lastly wait another 30 minutes afterwards add distilled water using a stopper to complete the solution to 10mL (10000µm) then put the rubber stopper on the volumetric flask and mix till you are sure that all the contents are mixed. Again, set up the spectrometer to 562nm and using the 2 samples that were made take one from each to measure the absorbance plus a third one from either one of the solution. End your experiment by recording each of your …show more content…

There were some factors which could have been changed to give better results like calibrating the spectrometer, this might have given better results. The points that curve from points 4-6 may have occurred from that. To make my results more consistent and reliable I could try using smaller concentrations increments and with each sample repeat 3 times, then do an average.
This experiment could be repeated but use food as the samples. This would help understand how your body consumes Iron, and how much Iron it consumes. The experiment would be like this one; “Determination of Iron Species in Samples of Iron-Fortified Food”- Reference: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12161-014-9843-5. However, there would be factors affecting it as well like every body doesn’t consume the same amount of Iron intake.
To conclude this experiment my predictions of the positive correlation was correct however the kink from points 4 to 6 wasn’t included in it. If I could change the method I would add “Make sure your spectrometer is calibrated” because this would help get more reliable

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