Regulatory failure of serum prohepcidin levels in patients with hepatitis C.
OBJECTIVE
Elevated serum ferritin and hepatic iron concentrations are frequently observed in chronic hepatitis C (CHC), which may be related to hepcidin. Because the role of hepcidin in CHC patients remains unknown, we aimed in this study to generate some information about hepcidin in CHC.


METHODS
To determine whether serum hepcidin correlates with markers of iron status in patients with viral hepatitis, we measured serum prohepcidin levels in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and in healthy controls.


RESULTS
Serum prohepcidin and ferritin levels were negatively correlated (r=-0.182, P=0.037) in HCV patients and positively correlated in HBV patients and in healthy controls. The total iron scores in liver specimens from HCV patients were also negatively correlated (r=-0.403, P=0.013). Serum prohepcidin levels in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) were significantly lower than in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH). In both CH and LC patients, serum prohepcidin levels were significantly lower in HCV patients than in HBV patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Failure of homeostatic regulation of serum prohepcidin concentrations may be induced by HCV infection, resulting in elevation of serum ferritin levels, which leads to the progression of liver injury by iron overload in CHC patients.
Nagashima
Miki
M
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kinki University School of Medicine, 377-2, Ohno-Higashi, Osaka-sayama, Osaka 589-8511, Japan.
Kudo
Masatoshi
M
Chung
Hobyung
H
Ishikawa
Emi
E
Hagiwara
Satoru
S
Nakatani
Tatsuya
T
Dote
Kensaku
K