Increased serum hepcidin-25 level and increased tumor expression of hepcidin mRNA are associated with metastasis of renal cell carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Background Hepcidin has an important role in iron metabolism. We investigated whether hepcidin was involved in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Methods We measured serum hepcidin-25 levels in 32 patients by liquid chromatograpy (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS)/MS, and assessed hepcidin mRNA expression in paired tumor and non-tumor tissue samples from the surgical specimens of 53 consecutive patients with RCC by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results The serum hepcidin-25 level was higher in patients with metastatic RCC than nonmetastatic RCC (P P P Conclusion Our findings suggest that a high serum hepcidin-25 level may indicate the progression of RCC, and that upregulation of hepcidin mRNA expression in tumor tissue may be related to increased metastatic potential.