Hepcidin resistance in dysmetabolic iron overload

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Dysmetabolic iron overload syndrome (DIOS) is a frequent condition predisposing to metabolic, cardiovascular and hepatic damage, whose pathogenesis remains poorly defined. Aim of this study was to characterize iron metabolism in DIOS.METHODS: We evaluated 18 patients with DIOS, compared to 18 with nonalcoholic fatty liver and 23 healthy individuals with normal iron status, and 10 patients with hereditary hemochromatosis by a 24-hour oral iron tolerance test with hepcidin measurement and iron metabolism modeling under normal iron stores.RESULTS: DIOS patients had higher peak transferrin saturation and area-under-the-curve of transferrin saturation than subjects with normal iron status, but lower values than hemochromatosis patients (p<0.05 for all). Conversely, they had higher peak circulating hepcidin levels and area-under-the-curve of hepcidin than the other groups (p