Département de Génétique, Développement et Pathologie Moléculaire, Institut Cochin, Faculté de Médecine Cochin-Port Royal, 24, rue du Fg St Jacques, 75014 Paris, France

Pro-hepcidin is unable to degrade the iron exporter ferroportin unless maturated by a furin-dependent process.

Published in Journal of Hepatology

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The iron-regulatory peptide hepcidin is synthesized in the liver as an 84-aa pre-pro-hormone maturated by proteolysis through a consensus furin cleavage site to generate the bioactive 25-aa peptide secreted in the circulation. This peptide regulates iron export from enterocytes and macrophages by binding the membrane iron exporter,...