title: Immunoassay-based serum hepcidin reference range measurements in healthy children: differences among age groups.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepcidin is a peptide hormone that plays a key role in regulating iron absorption from the small intestine and body iron distribution. Alterations in hepcidin concentrations have been associated with chronic inflammatory conditions or inherited diseases of iron metabolism. The aim of our study was to evaluate healthy children in order to define normal reference range of serum hepcidin concentrations. The universal use of a reliable commercial ELISA kit gives the ability to compare our results with those from previous studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated 180 healthy children (88 boys, mean age: 67.55 ± 39.26 months, median: 60, range: 24-156 months) aged 2-12 years, using an immunoassay kit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hepcidin median values were 46.94 ng/ml for boys and 46.79 ng/ml for girls. No significant differences were observed between boys and girls. There seem to be significantly higher values of hepcidin in older children (10-12 years old). This trend was constant and statistically significant in boys after gender and age group stratification. Although this trend was more prominent in girls, it was not statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study aims at setting up reference values for serum hepcidin concentrations in healthy pediatric population by using a well-established laboratory kit. The difference in hepcidin concentrations in older children could be attributed to different growth rates. Additionally, differences between values in adults and children could reflect alterations in iron metabolism between those two age groups.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Pediatrics, "P and A Kyriakou" Children's Hospital, Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Triantafyllia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sdogou
authors.forename: Charalampos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tsentidis
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gourgiotis
authors.forename: Antonios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marmarinos
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gkourogianni
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Papassotiriou
authors.forename: Theodora
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Anastasiou
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kossiva
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D064451:Hepcidins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D064451:Hepcidins
keywords: ELISA; ferritin; hepcidin; iron metabolism; pediatrics