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Serum hepcidin levels, iron status, and HFE gene alterations during the first year of life in healthy Spanish infants

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Abstract

The aims of this study were to describe hepcidin levels and to assess their associations with iron status and the main variants in the HFE gene in healthy and full-term newborns during the first year of life, as a longitudinal study conducted on 140 infants. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters, hepcidin, hemoglobin (Hb), serum ferritin (SF), transferrin saturation (TS), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and C-reactive protein (CRP), were assessed in 6- and 12-month-olds. Infants were genotyped for the three main HFE variants: C282Y, H63D, and S65C. Hepcidin levels increased from 6 to 12 months of age (43.7 ± 1.5 to 52.0 ± 1.5 ng/mL; p < 0.001), showing higher levels in infants with better iron status compared to those with iron deficiency (ID) (44.8 ± 1.5 vs 37.9 ± 1.3 ng/mL, p < 0.018, and 54.3 ± 1.5 vs 44.0 ± 1.4 ng/mL, p < 0.038, in 6- and 12-month-olds, respectively). In multivariate linear regression models, iron status was found to be associated with hepcidin levels in infants with wild-type HFE gene (p = 0.046 and p = 0.048 in 6- and 12-month-olds, respectively). However, this association was not found in HFE-alteration-carrying infants. Hepcidin levels increased in healthy infants during the first year of life and were positively associated with iron levels only in infants with wild-type HFE gene, a situation that requires further investigation.

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Funding

This study was supported by a grant from Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (2010/IISPV/12).

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Author notes

  1. Nuria Aranda and Cristina Bedmar contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nutrition and Public Health Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Research Group in Nutrition and Mental Health (NUTRISAM), Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, C/ Sant Llorenç 21, 43201, Reus, Spain

    Nuria Aranda, Cristina Bedmar, Victoria Arija, Cristina Jardí & Monica Tous

  2. Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Tarragona-Reus, Institut Universitari d’Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol, Tarragona, Spain

    Victoria Arija

  3. Pediatrics, Nutrition and Development Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain

    Rosa Jimenez-Feijoo & Natalia Ferré

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  1. Nuria Aranda
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Correspondence to Monica Tous.

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Informed consent was obtained from all families according to the Helsinki declaration—prior to enrolment—and the study was approved by the ethics committee of the Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus.

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Aranda, N., Bedmar, C., Arija, V. et al. Serum hepcidin levels, iron status, and HFE gene alterations during the first year of life in healthy Spanish infants. Ann Hematol 97, 1071–1080 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-018-3256-2

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