Abstract
Hepcidin is the principle regulatory hormone essential for iron homeostasis and the quantitative analysis of hepcidin in bodily fluids provides an insight into the pathogenesis of disorders of iron metabolism such as hereditary hemochromatosis and anemia of chronic disease. Hepcidin exists as 20aa, 22aa and 25aa isoforms in biofluids and the 25aa is the active form, with the 20aa and 22aa isoforms showing no apparent biological activity. This presentation will describe quantitative MALDI-TOF-MS and LC/MS/MS methods using standard addition and solid phase extraction for urine and plasma. Sample handling and its impact on the analysis will be discussed.