Hepcidin A Critical Regulator of Iron Metabolism during Hypoxia.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Hematology Volume 2011, Article ID 510304, 7 pages doi:10.1155/2011/510304 Review Article Hepcidin: A Critical Regulator of Iron Metabolism during Hypoxia Korry J. Hintze1 and James P. McClung2 1 Department of Nutrition, Dietetics Food Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA 2 Military Nutrition Division, US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM), Natick, MA 01760, USA Correspondence should be addressed to James P. McClung, james.mcclung@ Received 27 May 2011; Accepted 8 July 2011 Academic Editor: Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari Copyright © 2011 K. J. Hintze and J. P. McClung. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Iron status affects cognitive and physical performance in humans. Recent evidence indicates that iron balance is a tightly regulated process affected by a series of factors other than diet, to include hypoxia. Hypoxia has profound effects on iron absorption and results in increased iron acquisition and erythropoiesis when humans move from sea level to altitude. The effects of hypoxia on iron balance have been attributed to hepcidin, a central regulator of iron homeostasis. This paper will focus on the molecular mechanisms by which hypoxia affects hepcidin expression, to include a review of the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)/hypoxia response element (HRE) system, as well as recent evidence indicating that localized adipose hypoxia due to obesity may affect hepcidin signaling and organismal iron metabolism. 1. Iron: An Essential Trace Element from the diet and t