Serum Hepcidin levels and Iron indices in HIV Infected Patients in a Nigerian Community

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a pandemic disease that could affect and alter many cellular and systemic components of the host. Anemia has been shown to be a common complication of HIV infection. The study assessed the impact of HIV infection on serum levels of hepcidin and iron indices since hepcidin is an iron regulatory protein. A total of ninety subjects were investigated which consisted of fifty subjects living with HIV and forty apparently healthy subjects as control. Twenty-nine of the HIV subjects were on antiretroviral therapy (ART); emtricitabine, zidovudine, tenofovir and lamivudine in different combinations. Hepcidin was estimated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) while serum iron, total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) and unsaturated iron-binding capacity (UIBC) were estimated using spectrophotometric method. The result showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in unsaturated iron-binding capacity (UIBC) of HIV subjects compared with control. Although there was no significant negative impact of HIV infection on hepcidin and the iron indices, the study concluded that the parameters should be measured to monitoring the progress of management in order to prevent anemia which may occur during HIV infection