Abstract
Hepcidin is cysteine-rich cationic peptide produced by hepatocytes, secreted into blood plasma, and excreted in urine. Hepcidin is proposed to be the key regulator of iron metabolism and an evaluation of changes in the hepcidin level is important for diagnosis of several diseases.
However, methods used for the hepcidin detection and determination in urine and serum have certain limitations. At present time MALDI-TOF MS based approaches have been applied for final analysis of urinary and/or serum hepcidin levels.
Before MS analysis, separation of hepcidin from analyzed samples is an important and necessary step.