Mission Statement

Hepcidinanalysis.com is an initiative to serve the scientific and medical communities with high-quality hepcidin measurements to study the role of this peptide hormone in disorders of iron metabolism.

Expertise

In 2005, we were the first to employ time-of-flight mass spectrometry to measure hepcidin in urine. We have continued to improve this assay towards a current quantitative assay to measure hepcidin in human serum and urine samples using an internal standard for quantification. Since then, we have gained thorough expertise on biomedical and pre-analytical factors that influence hepcidin levels in clinical and biological samples and our assay has been succesfully used in several biomedical studies. We now coordinate the harmonization of hepcidin methods that are currently in use throughout the world.

 

Method

We offer quantitative serum/plasma and urine hepcidin measurements by a combination of weak cation exchange chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry using a hepcidin analogue as internal standard. This method allows discrimination between the three naturally occurring isoforms, hepcidin-20, -22, and -25, which are the result from differential processing at the hepcidin amino-terminus. Importantly, only the 25 amino acid form can block the iron transporter ferroportin and is referred to as “bioactive” hepcidin.

 

Characteristics and reference values serum/plasma hepcidin assay (download)

Characteristics and reference values urine hepcidin assay (download)

 

Our flexible approach also allows hepcidin measurements in other human body fluids, growth medium from in vitro cultured human cell lines and body fluids from different animals. On request, we can also take care of the measurement of other iron-related clinical parameters

 

 

Provided Service

 

For Clinicians

Online Test Request

 

Quantitative hepcidin measurements in human serum or plasma for individual or a small number of samples from patients with iron metabolism disorders

 

For Researchers

 

Tailored projects for hepcidin measurements upon request ( ≥10 samples)

 

Procedure

  1. Send an Email to info@hepcidinanalysis.com to specify your interest in this service
  2. A Service Request Form will be returned, together with answers to project-specific questions and a cost indication
  3. Fill-in and return Service  Request Form to info@hepcidinanalysis.com
  4. A Project Agreement with project specifications, purchase order number and actual “Project Fee” will be returned by Email [download Example Project Agreement]
  5. Send-in sample(s) together with countersigned Project Agreement; send electronic list with sample ID’s (Excel) to info@hepcidinanalysis.com as shipment dispatch notification
  6. Hepcidin Data Sheet and Project Invoice will be returned by Email

Notes: supply 1 ml fresh sample in a 2 ml polypropylene tube; make sure that the provided sample ID’s match the ID’s on the tubes; only use coded patient information (eg.internal hospital code) as results will be returned by Email; costs are dependent on the material, study design, number of samples and can only be estimated upon specific request; turn-around-time is dependent on project volume and sample quality

 

Important: never send in samples without a Purchase Order (online test request) or Project Agreement. For all questions or requests, please contact us by Email at info@hepcidinanalysis.com

 

 

 

General Sample Recommendations

 

 

 

Hepcidinanalysis.com is located within the Department of Laboratory Medicine (Clinical Chemistry) of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center. The team members have a broad expertise in iron metabolism, clinical chemistry, diagnostic medicine, biomedical sciences, molecular biology, mass spectrometry and biochemistry.

 

 

Hepcidinanalysis.com is part of the legal entity “UMC St Radboud Onderzoek Klinische Chemie B.V.”, which is listed in the Commercial Register of the Chamber of Commerce under file number 41261285.