title: Increased hepcidin expression in colorectal carcinogenesis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether the iron stores regulator hepcidin is implicated in colon cancer-associated anaemia and whether it might have a role in colorectal carcinogenesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS and SELDI-TOF MS) was employed to measure hepcidin in urine collected from 56 patients with colorectal cancer. Quantitative Real Time RT-PCR was utilised to determine hepcidin mRNA expression in colorectal cancer tissue. Hepcidin cellular localisation was determined using immunohistochemistry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We demonstrate that whilst urinary hepcidin expression was not correlated with anaemia it was positively associated with increasing T-stage of colorectal cancer (P<0.05). Furthermore, we report that hepcidin mRNA is expressed in 34% of colorectal cancer tissue specimens and was correlated with ferroportin repression. This was supported by hepcidin immunoreactivity in colorectal cancer tissue.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrate that systemic hepcidin expression is unlikely to be the cause of the systemic anaemia associated with colorectal cancer. However, we demonstrate for the first time that hepcidin is expressed by colorectal cancer tissue and that this may represent a novel oncogenic signalling mechanism.
authors.affiliation: CRUK Institute for Cancer Studies, University of Birmingham, Vincent Drive, Birmingham B15 2TH, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Douglas G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Brookes
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Joy
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Tariq
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ismail
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spychal
authors.forename: Tariq
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tselepis
mesh_terms: D000740:Anemia / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000652:urine; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000652:urine; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D064451:Hepcidins; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C578702:HAMP protein, human; D064451:Hepcidins; D012333:RNA, Messenger