The relationship between hepcidin and vitamin D in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Although NAFLD is a dangerous disease that progresses from simple adiposity to insufficiency, its pathogenesis is not clear. According to the 'two hit' hypothesis, insulin resistance-related adiposity and subsequent inflammation, oxidative stress are blamed. In studies, there are conflicting results for the level of hepcidin in NAFLD, which is increased in inflammation. Again, studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency can cause NAFLD by increasing inflammation. In addition, an increase in hepcidin levels was observed, and a decrease in hepcidin synthesis was observed with vitamin D treatment. In our study, we compared hepatosteatosis patients and the control group between hepcidin and vitamin D and aimed to show that the increase in hepcidin levels may cause NAFLD in vitamin D deficiency. For this purpose, we first formed groups of 46 patients with adiposity and 40 controls. We compared some parameters, including hepcidin, between these groups and investigated the relationship between hepcidin and vitamin D. Our study included 90 people, including 46 patients and 44 controls. Values such as CRP and ferritin, which increase with inflammation, were also found to be high in patients in our study. But hepcidin was lower than control. There was no statistically significant relationship between the control and patient groups for vitamin D. When the relationship between hepcidin and vitamin D was questioned, no statistically significant difference was found between the groups. Limitations of our study may be that it was a single-center study and only the relationship between parameters was examined. It may not be accurate to draw conclusions about the causal relationship without giving additional vitamin D by looking at this relationship alone. Serial blood tests, careful randomization of patients, and comprehensive studies examining whether the results will change with vitamin D treatment may provide a better understanding of the relationship between hepcidin and vitamin D in both NAFLD and other diseases. Maybe it can develop a new perspective on the etiology and treatment of diseases.