RESEARCH ARTICLE Impaired lysosomal acidification triggers iron deficiency and inflammation in vivo King Faisal Yambire1, Christine Rostosky2, Takashi Watanabe3, David Pacheu-Grau1, Sylvia Torres-Odio4, Angela Sanchez-Guerrero1,2, Ola Senderovich5, Esther G Meyron-Holtz5, Ira Milosevic2, Jens Frahm3, A Phillip West4, Nuno Raimundo1* 1Institute of Cellular Biochemistry, University Medical Center Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany; 2European Neuroscience Institute, a Joint Initiative of the Max-Planck Institute and of the University Medical Center Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany; 3Biomedizinische NMR, Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, Germany; 4Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Austin, United States; 5Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel Abstract Lysosomal acidification is a key feature of healthy cells. Inability to maintain lysosomal acidic pH is associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases. However, the mechanisms elicited by impaired lysosomal acidification remain poorly understood. We show here that inhibition of lysosomal acidification triggers cellular iron deficiency, which results in impaired mitochondrial function and non-apoptotic cell death. These effects are recovered by supplying iron via a lysosome-independent pathway. Notably, iron deficiency is sufficient to trigger inflammatory signaling in cultured primary neurons. Using a mouse model of impaired lysosomal acidification, we observed a robust iron deficiency response in the brain, verified by in vivo magnetic resonance *For correspondence: imaging. Furthermore, the brains of these mice present a pervasive inflammatory signature
[email protected] associated with instability of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), both corrected by supplementation of goettingen.de the mice diet with iron. Our results highlight a novel mechanism linking impaired lysosomal Competing interests: The acidification, mitochondrial malfunction and inflammation in vivo.