Intestinal iron absorption is appropriately modulated to match physiological demand for iron in wild-type and iron-loaded Hamp (hepcidin) knockout rats during acute colitis.

Mucosal damage, barrier breach, inflammation, and iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) typify ulcerative colitis (UC) in humans. The anemia in UC appears to mainly relate to systemic inflammation. The pathogenesis of this 'anemia of inflammation' (AI) involves cytokine-mediated transactivation of hepatic Hamp (encoding the iron-regulatory hormone, hepcidin).