Extrahepatic hepcidin production: The intriguing outcomes of recent years

Core Tip

Core tip: Hepcidin is the key regulator of iron homeostasis and is involved in iron-related disorders, namely anemia of inflammation and primary and secondary hemochromatosis. Since the discovery of its hyposideremic role, considerable efforts were made to explore iron handling by hepcidin. Almost all these studies focused on the liver because this organ was shown to be the major source of systemic hepcidin. However, interesting pending data showed an extrahepatic production of hepcidin in several organs, but the involvement of this peripheral hepcidin in local and overall iron homeostasis remains unknown. Thus, we think that those in the field should: (1) Consider the presence of endogenous hepcidin in the peripheral organs; and (2) Be interested in the involvement of hepcidin in other physiological and pathological mechanisms, in particular antimicrobial activity, acid secretion regulation, immune inflammatory response, etc.