Hepcidin Levels in Children with Chronic Liver Disease

Background/Aim: We aimed to analyze serum hepcidin level in children with chronic liver disease (CLD) and its relationship with serum cytokines level, liver function tests, hepatic iron content, and liver fibrosis. Patients and Methods: The study included 34 children with CLD, and 15 age-and gender-matched healthy children. Serum hepcidin, ferritin, iron level, interleukin-6 (IL-6), transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), total oxidant status (TOS), and antioxidant status (TAS) were studied in all patients and in the control group. Liver iron content (LIC) was measured from the liver biopsy specimen. Results: Serum ferritin levels were higher in patients with CLD than control group (100.1 +/- 98.2 ng/mL vs 50.5 +/- 32.2 ng/mL, P = 0.016). No significant difference was found in hepcidin levels. Hepcidin levels in children with CLD was positively correlated with ferritin (r = 0.75, P = 0.001), pediatric end-stage liver disease (PELD) score (r = 0.56, P = 0.001), TAS (r = 0.42, P = 0.02), but negatively correlated with albumin level (r = -0.45, P = 0.008). Transferrin saturation and hepcidin: ferritin ratio were significantly low in patients with severe fibrosis compared with patients with mild/without fibrosis (15.5 +/- 5.5 vs 34.3 +/- 30.1, P = 0.017 and 1 +/- 0.5 vs 1.9 +/- 1.4, P = 0.04, respectively). Conclusion: Serum hepcidin levels in children with CLD reflect both liver functions and TAS, and severe fibrosis is associated with low hepcidin: ferritin ratio in children with CLD.