Experimental data suggest the antimicrobial peptide hepcidin as a central regulator in iron homeostasis. In this study, we characterized the expression of human hepcidin in experimental and clinical iron overload conditions, including hereditary hemochromatosis. Using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), we determined expression of hepcidin and the most relevan...

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is an inherited iron overload disorder characterized by normal iron-driven erythropoiesis and abnormal iron metabolism, leading to excess iron deposited in parenchymal cells of liver, heart, and endocrine glands. Iron hormone, hepcidin, plays a critical role in iron homeostasis through interaction with ferroportin (FPN), a major cellular iron exporter. Hepcidin i...

SFT, a stimulator of iron (Fe) transport, has been described as a transmembrane protein that facilitates the uptake of ferrous and ferric iron in mammalian cells. This study was initiated to investigate the 5' regulatory region of SFT and its role in the etiology of hereditary hemochromatosis. Sequence analyses of the putative 5' regulatory region revealed that the SFT cDNA sequence corresponds...

BACKGROUND To investigate whether the frequency of carriers of mutations in the HFE gene associated with hereditary hemochromatosis diminishes with age as an indication that HFE mutations are associated with increased mortality. It is of value in the debate concerning screening for hereditary hemochromatosis to determine the significance of heterozygosity. METHODS Genotyping for mutations in ...

Malaria is an endemic parasitosis and its causitive agent, Plasmodium, has a metabolism linked to iron supply. HFE is a gene with the polymorphisms C282Y and H63D, which are associated with a progressive iron accumulation in the organism leading to a disease called hereditary hemochromatosis. The aim of the present study was to determine the allelic and genotypic frequencies of the HFE gene pol...

Alessandro C. S. Ferreira Vanessa C. Oliveira Fabíola A. Caxito Karina B. Gomes Amanda M. Castro Victor C. Pardini Classical hereditary hemochromatosis is a recessive autosomal disease related to a systemic iron overload that is frequently related to C282Y and H63D mutations in the HFE gene. In Brazil, reports on HFE gene mutation frequencies are rare, mainly in regards to a representative samp...

The term ‘hemochromatosis’ was first used by von Recklinghausen, a German pathologist in the late 1800s [1]; he determined that the pigmentation seen in patients with advanced hemochromatosis was due to iron. In 1935, Joseph Sheldon, a British geriatrician, published a monograph describing over 300 patients with hemochromatosis [2]. He concluded that the disorder was an inherited defect with al...