Healio
Healio
October 27, 2009
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Elevated hepcidin unbalanced to iron depletion in premenopausal women

The Obesity Society’s 27th Annual Scientific Meeting

In a new study, obesity was associated with elevated serum hepcidin levels and depletion of iron in premenopausal women — a finding that suggests hepcidin may respond to chronic low-grade inflammation and not depleted iron status.

Researchers examined systemic hepcidin levels and the effect on iron level, BMI and inflammation in 20 obese women and 20 non-obese women. Hepcidin mRNA in liver and abdominal adipose tissue biopsies were assessed in a subsample of 20 obese women.

Obese women had higher inflammation levels (race-adjusted: 7.49 mg vs. 0.83 mg; P<.0001) and serum hepcidin levels (race-adjusted: 88.02 ng/mL vs. 9.70 ng/mL; P<.0001) compared with non-obese women. Further, obesity was associated with higher transferrin receptor levels (P=.001) after adjustment for race/ethnicity.

Although serum hepcidin was not associated with iron levels, transferrin saturation or transferrin receptor in obese women, serum hepcidin was positively correlated with transferrin saturation (R=0.70), iron (R=0.58) and inversely associated with transferrin receptor (R=–0.63) in non-obese women.

Further, liver hepcidin mRNA expression was 800 times greater when compared with adipose tissue in obese women, and was highly correlated with circulating hepcidin levels (R=0.64), according to the researchers.

“Obesity is associated with iron depletion and elevated serum hepcidin and moderately elevated hepcidin likely impairs iron depletion through decreased dietary absorption,” Lisa Tussing, PhD, RD, of the department of Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said during a presentation. “Because this is a newer area, further studies are needed to understand the health impact of this.” – by Jennifer Southall

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