Cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides are abundant in animal and plant tissues involved in host defense. In insects, most are synthesized in the fat body, an organ analogous to the liver of vertebrates. From human urine, we characterized a cysteine-rich peptide with three forms differing by amino-terminal truncation, and we named it hepcidin (Hepc) because of its origin in the liver and its antimicrobial properties. Two predominant forms, Hepc20 and Hepc25, contained 20 and 25 amino acid residues with all 8 cysteines connected by intramolecular disulfide bonds. Reverse translation and search of the data bases found homologous liver cDNAs in species from fish to human and a corresponding human genomic sequence on human chromosome 19. The full cDNA by 5 rapid amplification of cDNA ends was 0.4 kilobase pair, in agreement with hepcidin mRNA size on Northern blots. The liver was the predominant site of mRNA expression. The encoded prepropeptide contains 84 amino acids, but only the 20 -25-amino acid processed forms were found in urine. Hepcidins exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Aspergillus niger and antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and group B Streptococcus. Hepcidin may be a vertebrate counterpart of cysteinerich antimicrobial peptides produced in the fat body of insects.Innate immunity relies on a variety of effector mechanisms to defend against microbial invasion. Among them are the abundant and widely distributed disulfide-linked cationic antimicrobial peptides found in both the plant and animal kingdoms. Generally, these peptides exhibit a broad range of activity against bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and enveloped viruses. Plants produce many cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides including thionins, plant defensins, and the cysteine rich Ib-AMP 1-4 (1-3). In insects, cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides are produced in the fat body (functional homologue of the mammalian liver) and transcriptionally induced and released into the hemolymph in response to infection or injury. These include insect defensins, heliomicin, drosomycin, and thanatin (4 -7). Mollusks also produce cationic and cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides such as mytilin, mytimicin, and myticin (8). In mammals, similar antimicrobial peptides include ␣-and ␤-defensins and protegrins (9, 10).Like the insect fat body, the vertebrate liver is also centrally involved in innate immune response to infection. The "acute phase" response to infection or inflammation is a pattern of increased hepatic synthesis of many secreted proteins involved in host defense and the selective suppression of synthesis of other secreted proteins. In contrast to the abundant fat bodyderived antimicrobial peptides of insects, no vertebrate antimicrobial peptides originating in the liver have been described to date. In this work, we report the discovery of a novel hepatic antimicrobial peptide, hepcidin, whose processed form is found in urine. MATERIALS AND METHODSPur...

Hepcidin is a liver-made peptide proposed to be a central regulator of intestinal iron absorption and iron recycling by macrophages. In animal models, hepcidin is induced by inflammation and iron loading, but its regulation in humans has not been studied. We report that urinary excretion of hepcidin was greatly increased in patients with iron overload, infections, or inflammatory diseases. Hepcidin excretion correlated well with serum ferritin levels, which are regulated by similar pathologic stimuli. In vitro iron loading of primary human hepatocytes, however, unexpectedly down-regulated hepcidin mRNA, suggesting that in vivo regulation of hepcidin expression by iron stores involves complex indirect effects. Hepcidin mRNA was dramatically induced by interleukin-6 (IL-6) in vitro, but not by IL-1 or tumor necrosis factor ␣ (TNF-␣), demonstrating that human hepcidin is a type II acute-phase reactant. The linkage of hepcidin induction to inflammation in humans supports its proposed role as a key mediator of anemia of inflammation.

Recovery from blood loss requires a greatly enhanced supply of iron to support expanded erythropoiesis. After hemorrhage, suppression of the iron-regulatory hormone hepcidin allows increased iron absorption and mobilization from stores. We identified a new hormone, erythroferrone (ERFE), which mediates hepcidin suppression during stress erythropoiesis. ERFE is produced by erythroblasts in response to erythropoietin. ERFE-deficient mice fail to suppress hepcidin rapidly after hemorrhage and exhibit a delay in recovery from blood loss. ERFE expression is greatly increased in murine HbbTh3/+ thalassemia intermedia where it contributes to the suppression of hepcidin and systemic iron overload characteristic of this disease.

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Human β-defensins (HBDs) are antimicrobial peptides that may play a role in mucosal defense. Diminished activity of these peptides has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. We show that HBD-1 and HBD-2 mRNAs are expressed in excised surface and submucosal gland epithelia from non-CF and CF patients. The pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β stimulated the expression of HBD-2 but not HBD-1 mRNA and peptide in primary cultures of airway epithelia. HBD-1 was found in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from normal volunteers, CF patients, and patients with inflammatory lung diseases, whereas HBD-2 was detected in BAL fluid from patients with CF or inflammatory lung diseases, but not in normal volunteers. Both HBD-1 and HBD-2 were found in BAL fluid in concentrations of several ng/ml, and both recombinant peptides showed salt-sensitive bactericidal activity. These data suggest that in the lung HBD-2 expression is induced by inflammation, whereas HBD-1 may serve as a defense in the absence of inflammation.

Intact human epidermis resists invasion by pathogenic microbes but the biochemical basis of its resistance is not well understood. Recently, an antimicrobial peptide, human beta-defensin-2, was discovered in inflamed epidermis. We used a recombinant baculovirus/insect cell system to produce human beta-defensin-2 and confirmed that at micromolar concentrations it has a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, with the striking exception of Staphylococcus aureus. Immunostaining with a polyclonal antibody to human beta-defensin-2 showed that the expression of human beta-defensin-2 peptide by human keratinocytes required differentiation of the cells (either by increased calcium concentration or by growth and maturation in epidermal organotypic culture) as well as a cytokine or bacterial stimulus. Interleukin-1alpha, interleukin-1beta, or live Pseudomonas aeruginosa proved to be the most effective stimuli whereas other bacteria and cytokines had little or no ability to induce human beta-defensin-2 synthesis. In interleukin-1alpha-stimulated epidermal cultures, human beta-defensin-2 first appeared in the cytoplasm in differentiated suprabasal layers of skin, next in a more peripheral web-like distribution in the upper layers of the epidermis, and then over a few days migrated to the stratum corneum. By semiquantitative Western blot analysis of epidermal lysates, the average concentration of human beta-defensin-2 in stimulated organotypic epidermal culture reached 15--70 microg per gram of tissue, i.e., 3.5-16 microM, well within the range required for antimicrobial activity. Because of the restricted pattern of human beta-defensin-2 distribution in the epidermis, its local concentration must be much higher. Defensins and other antimicrobial peptides of inflamed epidermis are likely to play an important antimicrobial role in host defense against cutaneous pathogens.

The stratified epithelia of the oral cavity are continually exposed to bacterial challenge that is initially resisted by innate epithelial factors and by the recruitment of neutrophils. Antimicrobial peptides from phagocytes and epithelia contribute to this antimicrobial barrier. Using antibodies and in situ hybridization, we explored antimicrobial peptide expression in the varied epithelia of the periodontium and in cultured gingival epithelial cells. In gingival tissue, mRNA for the beta-defensins, human beta-defensin 1 (hBD-1) and human beta-defensin 2 (hBD-2) was predominately localized in suprabasal stratified epithelium and the peptides were detected in upper epithelial layers consistent with the formation of the stratified epithelial barrier. In cultured epithelial cells, both hBD-1 and -2 peptides were detected only in differentiating, involucrin-positive epithelial cells, although hBD-2 required stimulation by proinflammatory mediators or bacterial products for expression. Beta-defensins were not detected in junctional epithelium (JE) that serves as the attachment to the tooth surface. In contrast, alpha-defensins and cathelicidin family member LL-37 were detected in polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) that migrate through the JE, a localization that persists during inflammation, when the JE and surrounding tissue are highly infiltrated with PMNs. Thus, the undifferentiated JE contains exogenously expressed alpha-defensins and LL-37, and the stratified epithelium contains endogenously expressed beta-defensins. These findings show that defensins and other antimicrobial peptides are localized in specific sites in the gingiva, are synthesized in different cell types, and are likely to serve different roles in various regions of the periodontium.

The peptide hormone hepcidin is the principal regulator of systemic iron homeostasis. We examined the pathway by which iron stimulates the production of hepcidin. In humans who ingested 65 mg of iron, the increase in transferrin saturation preceded by hours the increase in urinary hepcidin excretion. Increases in urinary hepcidin concentrations were proportional to the increment in transferrin saturation. Paradoxically, in previous studies in primary hepatocytes and cell lines, hepcidin response to iron or iron transferrin was not observed. We now report that freshly isolated murine primary hepatocytes responded to holotransferrin but not apotransferrin by increasing hepcidin mRNA. Hepcidin increase was not due to contamination of the transferrin preparations by endotoxin, a potent pathologic stimulus of hepcidin synthesis. Using this culture system, we showed that holotransferrin concentrations regulate hepcidin mRNA concentrations through a hemojuvelin/BMP2/4-dependent pathway. Although BMP9 is known to be expressed in the liver and potently increased the basal concentrations of hepcidin mRNA, it did not interact with hemojuvelin, and interference with its signaling pathway did not affect iron regulation. Fresh primary hepatocytes constitute a sufficient system for the regulation of hepcidin by physiologic iron stimuli and will greatly facilitate studies of major disorders of iron homeostasis. IntroductionHepcidin (HAMP) is the principal iron-regulatory hormone. 1 It is predominantly produced in the liver, circulates in blood, and is excreted in urine. Hepcidin regulates systemic iron homeostasis by inhibiting dietary iron absorption in the small intestine, recycling of iron from senescent erythrocytes by macrophages, and iron mobilization from hepatic stores.Hepcidin production is affected by dietary or parenteral iron loading, iron stores, erythropoietic activity, tissue hypoxia, and inflammation. [2][3][4][5] In healthy humans and mice, iron loading by ingestion or injection induces hepcidin synthesis. However, how iron regulates hepcidin production is still unknown. Previous in vitro studies with hepatoma cell lines and primary hepatocytes reproduced the response of hepcidin during inflammation and hypoxia but failed to demonstrate increased hepcidin synthesis in response to iron loading. It appeared that some essential regulatory components present in vivo were missing in isolated hepatocytes.In hereditary hemochromatosis, dietary iron is hyperabsorbed and accumulates in tissues, eventually causing organ damage. Hepcidin analyses in human subjects and in animal models indicate that most hereditary hemochromatosis is due to hepcidin deficiency resulting from primary mutations in human hemochromatosis gene (HFE), transferrin receptor 2 (TFR2), the juvenile hemochromatosis gene hemojuvelin (HJV), or the hepcidin gene itself. This implies that HFE, transferrin receptor 2, and hemojuvelin play important roles in the regulation of hepcidin. Mutations of hemojuvelin result in the most severe form of hereditary ...