Anemia in the News

A deeper understanding of how iron is moved among cells in your body may allow doctors to quickly find out what is causing anemia or other iron-related imbalances.

Researchers recently discovered how the hormone hepcidin connects with ferroportin, the protein which transports iron out of the cell. Hepcidin binds with and deactivates ferroportins to balance the movement and level of iron. Problems arise when hepcidin levels in blood cells are either too low, causing iron overload, or too high, causing anemia.

Knowing the level of hepcidin from a quick and reliable test could allow doctors to distinguish conditions that arise from genetic mutations or abnormalities in hepcidin from causes related to chronic disease and inflammation.

In recent weeks, two separate research studies have outlined techniques for detecting hepcidin levels. Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered the specific binding site on ferroportin where hepcidin attaches, which allowed them to construct an experimental test (called an assay) to detect the active level of hepcidin in the blood of vertebrates. Their study¹ is published in the August 2008 issue of Cell Metabolism.

Another research team, associated with the University of California Los Angeles and Intrinsic Life Sciences, have independently developed and validated the first immunoassay for measurement of serum hepcidin in humans. An article² about the development of this assay has been accepted by the journal Blood, and was released among their August 8th First Edition Papers. NAAC will include a review of this article in an upcoming issue of Anemia Alert.

References

1. De Domenico I, Nemeth E, Nelson JM, Phillips JD, Ajioka RS, Kay MS, Kushner JP, Ganz T, Ward DM, Kaplan J. The hepcidin-binding site on ferroportin is evolutionarily conserved. Cell Metab. 2008 Aug;8(2):146-56.
2. Ganz T, Olbina G, Girelli D, Nemeth E, Westerman M. Immunoassay for human serum hepcidin. Blood. 2008 Aug 8.

Last Updated: August 21, 2008