Hepcidin Testing
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:12 pm
Hello -
I’ve been researching a lot lately and was wondering why Hepcidin is not a biomarker used in RLS to evaluate functional issues with iron transportation. If you believe in the inflammation theory, it seems like a very logical marker as increased inflammation would increase Hepcidin and reduce iron transport. Even if you don’t, it could at least be used as a weight in evaluating serum ferritin, which is a very flawed marker. From there, one could potentially look into therapies that decrease Hepcidin, potentially increasing iron transport.
Any thoughts?
I’ve been researching a lot lately and was wondering why Hepcidin is not a biomarker used in RLS to evaluate functional issues with iron transportation. If you believe in the inflammation theory, it seems like a very logical marker as increased inflammation would increase Hepcidin and reduce iron transport. Even if you don’t, it could at least be used as a weight in evaluating serum ferritin, which is a very flawed marker. From there, one could potentially look into therapies that decrease Hepcidin, potentially increasing iron transport.
Any thoughts?