Evaluation of serum ferritin and hepcidin level and their association with obesity in Iraqi obese women

Abstract

Abstract Obesity is a chronic disease renowned as a global epidemic. Prevalence of obesity proceeded as highly elevated to almost two-thirds of the world population, including Iraq. One of the major reasons of overweight and obesity is increasing food intake. Obese people are often suffering from chronic inflammatory state due to a variation in immune efficiency in the adipose tissue. Our research aims to assess the ferritin and hepcidin level in obese women with and without hypertensive. Eighty of obese women were participants as volunteers, as well as, 40 subjects as healthy control. Based on Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC), Waist to Height Ratio (WHtR) and Waist to Hip Ratio (WHpR). Participants were divided into two categories, the: first with BMI ≥ 18.5-25 kg/m2 as non-obese (control) and the, second with BMI ≥ 30kg/m2 as obese subjects. The studied parameters showed the following results: A significant elevation in TG, LDL, VLDL, glucose, AST, ALT, calcium, Creatinine, Uric acid, Urea, ferritin and hepcidin in obese (for both obese women and hypertensive obese women) compared with control group, while a significant decrease was noticed in HDL level in obese group as compared with control group. This study improved that ferritin and hepcidin can be considered as good markers to monitoring obesity, showing a high increase with increasing BMI.