Hepcidin: An emerging biomarker for iron disorders, inflammatory diseases, and infections

摘要

The peptide hormone hepcidin, has emerged as the master regulator of iron homeostasis. Dysregulation of hepcidin is a principal or contributing factor in most genetic and acquired systemic iron disorders, including anemia of inflammation (anemia of chronic disease). Hepcidin maintains healthy blood iron levels by regulating dietary iron absorption and transport from body iron stores to plasma. High serum hepcidin levels observed in chronic and acute inflammatory conditions can cause anemia by limiting plasma iron available for erythropoiesis. Chronically low serum hepcidin levels cause iron-overload and ultimately, accumulation of iron in liver and heart. We recently validated the first immunoassay for serum hepcidin and established the normal ranges in adults. Hepcidin has excellent potential as a biomarker and has a known mechanism of action, good stability, and rapid response to iron stores, inflammatory stimuli, and bacterial infections. Hepcidin can be measured in blood, urine, and saliva, and is generally not measurable in iron deficient/anemic patients and highly elevated in inflammatory diseases and infections. Intrinsic LifeSciences (ILS) is developing second generation hepcidin immunoassays and lateral-flow POC devices for hepcidin, a well characterized multi-purpose biomarker with applications in global health security.