Hepcidin is a 25 amino-acid (aa) cystein-rich peptide involved in iron metabolism: it regulates both intestinal iron absorption and macrophage iron recycling. There are several clinical applications for hepcidin measurements such as iron overload disorders and anemia, chronic inflammation, kidney disease and cancer. This peptide can also be found in the 20, 22 and 24-aa isoforms; however the histopathological relevance of these isoforms still needs to be determined and they are most likely the result of the degradation of the bioactive 25-aa isoform.