Anemia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Anemia, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, diet, treatment, causes.

Serum pro-hepcidin levels in rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Koca SS, Isik A, Ustundag B, Metin K, Aksoy K

Department of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Firat University, Elazig, Turkey. kocassk@yahoo.com

Hepcidin is a principal iron regulatory hormone and its expression is stimulated by cytokines. The aim of this study was to determine serum levels of the prohormone form of hepcidin, pro-hepcidin, in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The study included 72 RA and 28 SLE patients and 33 healthy controls (HC). Serum iron status, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-6 and pro-hepcidin levels were determined. Pro-hepcidin levels in the RA group was higher than SLE and HC groups (p < 0.05, p < 0.001, respectively). Pro-hepcidin levels did not correlate with disease activity scores, cytokine levels and serum iron status in the RA and SLE groups, while it correlated with TNF-alpha, IL-6 and ferritin levels in the HC group (r = 0.459, p < 0.01, r = 0.374, p < 0.05, r = -0.603, p < 0.01, respectively). Pro-hepcidin levels show extremely wide variations within the groups as do iron status and cytokines. Despite these wide variations correlation analysis do not reveal anything.

Published 7 May 2008 in Inflammation, 31(3): 146-53.
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