Successful antiviral therapy is associated with a decrease of serum prohepcidin in chronic hepatitis C

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of studied population (mean ± SE)

	Control group (n = 15)	Genotype 1		Genotype 3a
		R (n = 13)	NR (n = 16)	R (n = 21)	NR (n = 3)
Age [median (min-max), yr]	40 (26-54)	47 (21-67)	48 (23–58)	47 (25-64)a	24 (20-26)
Sex (M/F)	7/8	11/2	13/3	12/9	2/1
HCV-RNA log10 (cps/mL)	-	6.01 ± 5.74	5.86 ± 5.73	3.95 ± 3.65	2.95 ± 2.30
ALT (U/L)	-	110.4 ± 29.3	75.1 ± 8.7	111.5 ± 23.6	133.0 ± 25.2
Bilirubin (mg/dL)	-	1.1 ± 0.1	1.2 ± 0.1	1.0 ± 0.1	1.1 ± 0.1
Liver inflammatory activity [median (min-max), pts]	-	3 (1-3)	2 (1-4)	2 (1-3)	2.5 (2-3)
Liver fibrosis [median (min-max), pts]	-	1 (1-3)	1 (1-3)	1 (1-2)	1.5 (1-2)
Fe (μg/dL)	-	138.9 ± 18.3	162.2 ± 19.9	127.3 ± 10.9	165.0 ± 29.0
TIBC (μg/dL)	-	352.3 ± 20.7	316.5 ± 21.1	345.5 ± 13.5	361.3 ± 25.2
Transferrin saturation (%)	-	42.5 ± 6.9	39.1 ± 5.9	38.0 ± 4.1	43.7 ± 10.1
Ferritin (ng/mL)	-	255.4 ± 50.2	204.5 ± 35.1	193.4 ± 58.1	134.8 ± 61.8
Hemoglobin (g/dL)	-	15.0 ± 0.32	14.5 ± 0.4	14.6 ± 0.3	15.4 ± 0.9
Prohepcidin (ng/mL)	84.1 ± 7.8	88.8 ± 14.7	88.3 ± 11.4	99.5 ± 5.2	94.1 ± 7.9

^aP < 0.05 in comparison to non-responders, all of the other differences are non-significant. R: Responders; NR: Non-responders; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; TIBC: Total iron binding capacity.

Table 2 Correlations between baseline serum prohepcidin (ng/mL), ALT activity, HCV-RNA, and iron metabolism parameters in studied population

	Genotype 1		Genotype 3a
	R	P	R	P
HCV-RNA (cp/mL)	-0.09	0.620	0.08	0.750
ALT (U/L)	0.38	0.0401	-0.06	0.810
Fe (μg/dL)	-0.06	0.510	-0.48	0.0401
Hgb (g/dL)	-0.03	0.850	0.18	0.420
TIBC (μg/dL)	0.07	0.730	-0.11	0.640
Ferritin (ng/mL)	0.63	0.0011	0.25	0.330

¹Statistical significance calculated by use of spearman rank test.

Table 3 Serum prohepcidin concentrations in genotype 1 HCV-infected patients during antiviral therapy with respect to SVR (mean ± SE)

	Prohepcidin (ng/mL)		P
	Responders (n = 13)	Non-responders (n = 16)
Baseline	88.8 ± 14.7	88.3 ± 11.4	0.980
6 h	75.2 ± 10.2	79.5 ± 7.2	0.620
24 h	72.6 ± 6.8	68.4 ± 4.6	1.000
48 h	67.9 ± 7.6	64.8 ± 4.3	0.930
7th d	87.9 ± 8.6	85.9 ± 9.6	0.690
4th wk	77.7 ± 9.8	76.0 ± 7.8	0.920
12th wk	71.6 ± 6.7	76.1 ± 5.2	0.350
24th wk	63.9 ± 4.8	82.4 ± 4.3	0.004
48th wk	60.6 ± 2.3	82.3 ± 4.4	< 0.001
ANOVA1	χ2 = 9.6, P = 0.040	χ2 = 2.8, P = 0.590

¹Calculated from data collected at baseline and weeks 4, 12, 24, 48. SVR: Sustained viral response.

Table 4 Serum prohepcidin concentrations in genotype 3a HCV-infected patients during antiviral therapy with respect to SVR (mean ± SE)

	Prohepcidin (ng/mL)		P
	Responders (n = 21)	Non-responders (n = 3)
Baseline	99.5 ± 5.2	94.1 ± 7.9	0.620
6 h	87.6 ± 5.1	83.1 ± 4.7	0.760
24 h	84.3 ± 4.0	78.6 ± 6.5	0.730
48 h	76.8 ± 7.0	97.3 ± 22.1	0.630
7th d	99.6 ± 6.1	96.2 ± 6.3	0.940
4th wk	97.5 ± 6.3	84.9 ± 18.8	0.640
12th wk	83.7 ± 4.7	90.1 ± 13.3	0.750
24th wk	72.7 ± 6.1	103.5 ± 12.4	0.080
ANOVA1	χ2 = 14.8, P = 0.010	-

¹Calculated from data collected at baseline and weeks 4, 12, 24. ANOVA was not calculated for non-responders because of insufficient number of patients.