Muhammet Özbilen: The Skin as an Emerging Regulator of Iron Homeostasis
Muhammet Özbilen, Associate Professor Doctor at Ordu University, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article by Doha Chrayteh et al. published in Haematologica , adding:
“Your skin talks to your liver about iron — and it can win the argument.
A new letter in Haematologica (Chrayteh et al., Paris) shows that hepcidin — the master hormone of iron regulation, normally produced by the liver — can also be made locally in the skin, with surprisingly powerful systemic consequences.
Using a transgenic mouse model overexpressing hepcidin specifically in keratinocytes (Hamp1 KI-Ker), the team found that:
- Skin-restricted hepcidin overexpression caused iron to accumulate in the epidermis
- …but plasma iron and ferritin dropped sharply, driving iron-deficiency anemia
- The body tried to compensate — erythropoietin and erythroferrone (ERFE) rose, and the liver suppressed its own hepcidin
- None of that was enough: epidermal hepcidin overrode classical liver-driven control of body-wide iron
Why it matters:
This study provides proof-of-principle that keratinocyte-derived hepcidin alone can disrupt systemic iron balance, opening a new ‘skin–liver axis’ framework for understanding (and maybe one day treating) iron imbalance linked to dermatological disease.
A great example of how a localized, tissue-specific signal can ripple into whole-body physiology.”
Title: Skin hepcidin overexpression is sufficient to promote systemic iron deficiency
Authors: Doha Chrayteh, Nadia Boussetta, Elise Abboud, Sophie Vaulont, Carole Peyssonnaux
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