Saturday, September 27, 2014

Bromine: You've got to have it

McCall AS, Cummings CF, Bhave G, Vanacore R, Page-McCaw A, Hudson BG. Bromine is an essential trace element for assembly of collagen IV scaffolds in tissue development and architecture. Cell. 2014 Jun 5;157(6):1380-92. PMID: 24906154; PMCID: PMC4144415.

From the abstract: "... Dietary Br deficiency is lethal in Drosophila, whereas Br replenishment restores viability ... Importantly, Br-deficient flies phenocopy the developmental and BM [basement membrane] defects observed in peroxidasin mutants and indicate a functional connection between Br(-), collagen IV, and peroxidasin. We establish that Br(-) is required for sulfilimine formation within collagen IV, an event critical for BM assembly and tissue development. Thus, bromine is an essential trace element for all animals, and its deficiency may be relevant to BM alterations observed in nutritional and smoking-related disease."

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