Maternal pro-hepcidin at term correlates with cord blood pro-hepcidin at birth

Objective: Hepcidin, a small 25 amino-acid antimicrobial peptide, has a significant role in the regulation of iron homeostasis. Pro-hepcidin, an 84 amino-acid peptide, is a precursor of the active hepcidin. The main aim of this study was to examine the association of maternal serum pro-hepcidin with cord blood pro-hepcidin levels in term pregnancies, and whether maternal and newborn iron status measurements correlate with the pro-hepcidin level. Study design: The population consisted of 193 pregnant women admitted to the Kuopio University Hospital (Finland) for delivery, and their full-term newborn infants (cord blood). The main outcome measures were serum pro-hepcidin (ELISA), blood count including red cell indices, serum iron status markers (including iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation (TfSat), transferrin receptor(TfR) and ferritin), birth weight and placental weight and relative placental size. A Mann-Whitney U-test and Spearman's correlation were used to test the associations between the parameters. Results: Pregnant women had higher pro-hepcidin level than their newborns (325 mu g/L vs. 235 mu g/L, p < 0.001). The Spearman's correlation between the maternal and cord blood serum pro-hepcidin level was highly significant (correlation coefficient 0.600, p < 0.001). Additionally, both maternal and cord blood pro-hepcidin levels correlated weakly but significantly with placental weight and relative placental size. However, pro-hepcidin level did not correlate with iron status measurements in pregnant women or in their newborns. Conclusions: The present results suggest that pro-hepcidin is not associated with maternal or newborn iron homeostasis at term and birth, but may act in concert with the placenta, as evidenced by the correlation between maternal and fetal pro-hepcidin levels and their slight correlation with placental weight. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.