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Hepcidin: looking back at two decades of progress

Nature Cardiovascular Research volume 1, pages 191–193 (2022)Cite this article

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The amount of iron in the body and the concentration of iron in blood plasma are closely regulated by an endocrine system centered on the binding of the hormone hepcidin to its receptor and cellular iron exporter ferroportin. The discovery of hepcidin, the mechanisms of its action and its regulation have transformed our understanding of the pathogenesis of iron-related diseases from anemias to hemochromatosis and have led to the development of novel therapeutics for iron disorders.

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Fig. 1: Timeline of research on hepcidin and the endocrine regulation of iron.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to E. Nemeth for her edits and suggestions to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Departments of Medicine and Pathology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Tomas Ganz

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  1. Tomas Ganz
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Correspondence to Tomas Ganz.

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Competing interests

T.G. is a shareholder in Intrinsic LifeSciences and Silarus Pharma and has received consulting fees from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Akebia Therapeutics, Disc Medicine, FibroGen/AstraZeneca, Global Blood Therapeutics, Gossamer Bio, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacosmos, Rallybio, Sierra Oncology and Silence Therapeutics.

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Ganz, T. Hepcidin: looking back at two decades of progress. Nat Cardiovasc Res 1, 191–193 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00034-8

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