Hepcidin
protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens
Hepcidin is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HAMP gene. Hepcidin is a key regulator of the entry of iron into the circulation in mammals.
During conditions in which the hepcidin level is abnormally high, such as inflammation, serum iron falls due to iron trapping within macrophages and liver cells and decreased gut iron absorption. This typically leads to anemia due to an inadequate amount of blood serum iron being available for developing red blood cells. When the hepcidin level is abnormally low, such as in hemochromatosis, iron overload occurs due to increased ferroportin mediated iron efflux from storage and increased gut iron absorption.
Structure
Hepcidin is initially synthesized as an 84-amino acid preprohormone (preprohepcidin) which undergoes sequential cleavages to form the active, mature hormone. The first cleavage by signal peptidase removes the 24-amino acid N-terminal signal peptide, creating a 60-amino acid prohepcidin. Furin-like convertase and α-1 antitrypsin then cleave prohepcidin to remove a 35-amino acid proregion, resulting in the 25-amino acid mature, bioactive hepcidin. There are also shorter isoforms of hepcidin, with 20 and 22 amino acids, which have minimal iron regulatory activity. Only the 9 N-terminal amino acids are essential for hepcidin's biological activity, specifically its ability to bind to ferroportin and regulate iron metabolism.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14882371. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hepcidin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.