Hepcidin: Regulation in different animal models

Hepcidin in a hepatic iron regulatory protein recently discovered and is thought to be involved in iron regulation by affecting its absorption in the intestine. We used different rat models to observe the changes of hepcidin gene expression in the liver induced by damaging noxae: whole liver irradiation, CCl4 administration. The turpentine oil induced acute phase reaction model was used as reference. Changes of hepcidin gene expression were also studied in isolated rat hepatocytes treated with different cytokines. Total liver RNA was studied by real time PCR. Induction of hepcidin gene expression was found with…