The Impact of Sex and Age on Serum Prohepcidin Concentration in Healthy Adults

INTRODUCTION: Within the last 8 years, it has become evident that hepcidin has a diagnostic and therapeutic potential. Therefore, it is a great need to establish the reference interval for hepcidin and its precursor. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of age and sex on serum prohepcidin concentration in healthy adults. Material and methods: 100 healthy volunteers were enrolled during the 18 months of the study - 56 males and 44 females, mean age 34.8±10.1 yrs. Serum prohepcidin, ferritin, soluble transferring receptor (sTfR) and plasma erythropoietin were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Serum iron and unsaturated iron binding capacity were determined on ARCHITECT ci8200 (Abbott Diagnostics) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. RESULTS: Serum prohepcidin concentrations ranged from 74.9 ng/ml to 300.4 ng/ml in healthy adults of both sexes. However, prohepcidin levels were significantly higher in males (median value 145.7 ng/ml) than in females (median 127.3 ng/ml) (p=0.0016). Serum prohepcidin was not associated with age in the group of healthy adults. CONCLUSIONS: Serum prohepcidin concentrations were found to be related to sex. Significantly lower prohepcidin levels were observed in females compared with males.