A preliminary study on the interaction of ferritin single crystals with chelating agents

The crystallization of ferritin and the subsequent in situ study of the process of iron removal from the crystals by using chelating agents is reported. The chelating agents, oxalate and acetohydroxamate, were chosen because of their high iron(III) affinity. The formation of the corresponding soluble iron(III) complexes arising from the reaction with the iron cores was detected by UV-visible spectroscopy. Furthermore, we show that for a given concentration range of the chelating agents, the iron removal process takes place without crystal destruction. This ferritin-apoferritin (or iron-depleted ferritin) conversion was followed by video-microscopy and checked by X-ray diffraction.