the association of serum hepcidin levels and insulin resistance in pcos patients: a case-control study

Objective: to investigate the relationship between insulin resistance and hepcidin levels in patients with pcos. materials and methods: in this case–control study fifty- six patients with pcos and forty – one healthy control subjects were included. plasma levels of hepcidin, il-6, serum insulin and ferritin using elisa method, serum iron levels using a spectrophotometric method, and insulin resistance by using homa were measured in the two groups of pcos (case group) and healthy subjects (control group). the results were analyzed by student’s t-test, general linear model, binary logistic and linear regression tests. results: the mean hepcidin level was 1.97 ± 0.53 pg/ml and 2.40 ± 0.25pg/ml in the case and control groups, respectively. the t-test results showed a significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.0001). the mean of insulin level in case and control group was 30.65 ± 15.02g/dl and 14.71 ± 10.46g/dl, respectively. the t-test analysis indicated a significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.0001). there was an inverse relationship between the level of hepcidin with homa-ir (β = -0.629, p = 0.04), and il-6 (β = -0.243, p = 0.015) in both groups. the adjusted or proved a statistically significant association between serum hepcidin (or = 0.063; 95 % ci: 0.01-0.385, p-value = 0. 003) and homa (or = 1.569; 95 % ci: 1.254–1.964, p-value = 0.001) with polycysticovarian syndrome. conclusion: there was an inverse relationship between hepcidin levels and insulin resistance in both groups meaning decrease in hepcidin levels and increase in insulin resistance may increase the risk of pcos.