Stores iron in a soluble, non-toxic, readily available form. Important for iron homeostasis. Iron is taken up in the ferrous form and deposited as ferric hydroxides after oxidation. Also plays a role in delivery of iron to cells. Mediates iron uptake in capsule cells of the developing kidney.
[1] Structural and functional relationships of human ferritin H and L chains deduced from cDNA clones.Boyd D., Vecoli C., Belcher D.M., Jain S.K., Drysdale J.W.J. Biol. Chem. 260:11755-11761(1985) [2] Structure of human ferritin light subunit messenger