Demographic, clinical, laboratory and histological data as well as hepatic hepcidin mRNA and serum hepcidin levels of patients and healthy controls.

<p>Demographic, clinical, laboratory and histological data as well as hepatic hepcidin mRNA and serum hepcidin levels of patients and healthy controls.</p

Correlations between liver histology, hepcidin and ferritin in all patients.

<p>Values are expressed as the median and IQR.</p><p>Correlations between liver histology, hepcidin and ferritin in all patients.</p

Liver hepcidin mRNA and serum hepcidin levels in various liver diseases.

<p>Liver hepcidin mRNA (A), serum hepcidin levels (ng/ml) (B), liver hepcidin mRNA/log ratio (C) and serum hepcidin/log ferritin ratio (D) in the studied groups. Graphs depict the median (line within the box), 25^th to 70^th percentiles (upper and lower border of the box), and 10^th to 90^th percentiles (whiskers). <i>P</i> values calculated using Kruskal-Wallis t test, following Mann-Whitney U test for comparisons between groups.</p

Correlations between liver hepcidin mRNA, serum hepcidin, ferritin and clinical characteristics of patients.

<p>NA: not applicable.</p><p>Correlations between liver hepcidin mRNA, serum hepcidin, ferritin and clinical characteristics of patients.</p

Low Serum Hepcidin in Patients with Autoimmune Liver Diseases

Hepcidin, a liver hormone, is important for both innate immunity and iron metabolism regulation. As dysfunction of the hepcidin pathway may contribute to liver pathology, we analysed liver hepcidin mRNA and serum hepcidin in patients with chronic liver diseases. Hepcidin mRNA levels were determined in liver biopsies obtained from 126 patients with HCV (n = 21), HBV (n = 23), autoimmune cholestatic disease (primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis; PBC/PSC; n = 34), autoimmune hepatitis (AIH; n = 16) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD; n = 32). Sera sampled on the biopsy day from the same patients were investigated for serum hepcidin levels. Hepatic hepcidin mRNA levels correlated positively with ferritin and negatively with serum gamma-GT levels. However, no correlation was found between serum hepcidin and either ferritin or liver hepcidin mRNA. Both serum hepcidin and the serum hepcidin/ferritin ratio were significantly lower in AIH and PBC/PSC patients' sera compared to HBV, HCV or NAFLD (P<0.001 for each comparison) and correlated negatively with serum ALP levels. PBC/PSC and AIH patients maintained low serum hepcidin during the course of their two-year long treatment. In summary, parallel determination of liver hepcidin mRNA and serum hepcidin in patients with chronic liver diseases shows that circulating hepcidin and its respective ratio to ferritin are significantly diminished in patients with autoimmune liver diseases. These novel findings, once confirmed by follow-up studies involving bigger size and better-matched disease subgroups, should be taken into consideration during diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune liver diseases