Fig. 1.

Mechanisms of alcohol-induced hepcidin downregulation. The figure depicts a few mechanisms of alcohol-induced hepcidin suppression. These include events induced by hypoxia, oxidative stress, and reduced IL-6. Indeed, there are other hepcidin-suppressing mechanisms that may work alongside these events. Hepcidin downregulation leads to uncontrolled iron entry into plasma via ferroportin. Red crosses inside the macrophage, hepatocyte, and duodenal enterocyte indicate normal mechanism of hepcidin-mediated degradation of ferroportin (shown as green structures), which prevents iron entry into the circulation and thereby regulates systemic iron homeostasis under excess iron conditions. The normal hepcidin-ferroportin axis is disturbed due to alcohol-induced hepcidin suppression. C/EBP-α: CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha. The figure was created with BioRender.com