EVALUATION OF THE LEVELS AND ETHIOLOGİC ROLES OF HEPCIDIN AND IRON METABOLISM IN PRE-DIABETIC PATIENTS

Asli Yildirim^*, Mahmut Mert Musul, Ender Yalcinkaya, Ilhan Tarkun

Department of Endocrinology, Kocaeli University, Turkey

Objective: Iron can increase the development of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) through the formation of reactive oxygen radicals and subsequent oxidative distress. Hepcidin is a hormone that regulates iron absorption and distribution to tissues. Both hepcidin and ferritin are acute phase reactants and their serum levels may increase with all kinds of inflammations. Proinflammatory cytokines are known to increase in type 2 DM. For these reasons, we aimed to investigate the role of serum hepcidin and iron markers in the etiology of diabetes in pre-diabetic patients.

Method: It is a single-center, prospective, cohort study. 60 prediabetic and 30 healthy women was included according to the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) results. None of them had a systemic disease or use any drugs and cigarettes that could affect glucose concentration. The Study was approved by the Ethics committee of Kocaeli University. Informed consent was obtained from all individuals participating in the study.

Result: In our study, although ferritin and hepcidin values were found significiantly high in the prediabetic patient group, no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of iron, total iron binding capacity and saturation of the transfer.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the levels of ferritin and hepcidin may increase even in the prediabetic period due to chronic inflammatory process.