Binding and iron delivering of ovotransferrin (OTf) were evaluated using 14-day old chick-embryo red blood cells (CERBC) and cholesterol-depleted by treatment with chicken egg phosphatidyl choline (E-PC) liposomes. Liposome-treated CERBC assayed for their cholesterol content showed a cholesterol depletion depending on the incubation time, being 25% (w/w) of the maximum cellular removal of cholesterol seen after 22 h incubation at 37 degrees C. Total phosphorus content did not change either for the various samples or during the different incubation times, indicating that specific cholesterol removal occurred, as confirmed also by the increased membrane fluidity revealed through fluorescence anisotropy measurements. The apparent dissociation constant (Kd) of control and treated CERBC was almost of the same value at the same incubation time, ranging from 0.30 microM after 0.25 h incubation to 0.19 microM after 14 or 22 h incubation. In all experiments, the maximum value of bound OTf molecules per cell (Bmax) notably decreased as incubation time increased. But, in cholesterol partly depleted CERBC, the decrease of the Bmax values was less pronounced as the incubation time increased. As far as binding experiments were concerned, iron uptake studies showed that uptaking capacities decreased as incubation time increased. Considering both binding and iron uptake, at the same incubation time, liposome-treated CERBC were slightly more efficient with respect to untreated samples. In any case a passive iron delivering could be evidenced after 22 h incubation. It is suggested that cholesterol may tune binding and iron uptake by either regulating or affecting the expression or mobility of the OTf receptor.