SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah scientists have found that a hormone involved in iron metabolism can save mice from deadly acute inflammation — potentially leading to a treatment for humans.
The study reveals that "hepcidin has an anti-inflammatory effect, reducing the consequences of inflammation," said study co-author Ivana De Domenico, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah.
Co-author Diane Ward, University of Utah associate professor of pathology, added, "This could mean that hepcidin might be considered as a therapy for a wide range of acute inflammatory conditions such bacterial infections; inflammation from surgery, injury or burns; organ transplantation; and rare cases of inflammation from blood transfusions."
Toxic shock and fever also might be subject to hepcidin treatment.
Clinical trials in humans are required to determine if hepcidin is effective at treating human inflammatory conditions. But such research is still years away, according to the study's principal author, Jerry Kaplan, pathology professor and assistant vice president for basic sciences at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Results are scheduled for publication in The Journal of Clinical Investigation on July 1.
— Jasen Lee