Abdelhamid kerkadi obtained his PhD in Human Nutrition from Department of Nutrition, College of Medicine, University of Montreal, Canada in 1999. He joined Qatar University in 2006 and he was Program Coordinator from 2009-2012. He is currently an Associate Professor in Human Nutrition Program, Department of Health Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University. His research is manly oriented to community nutrition and nutrition intervention especially obesity prevention. He recently received a grant (NPRP-Exceptional) from Qatar national Research Fund. He has published peer-reviewed articles in many journals. He serves as the Editorial Board member of Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science , Journal of Food , Agriculture and Environment and Interenational Journal of Nutrition.

Introduction: The global prevalence of obesity has reached

an alarming rate. In addition to obesity and chronic diseases,

high prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies especially iron

deficiency anemia (ADA) was observed in many countries..

Among the different potential causes of iron deficiency, the

sequestration of iron through an inflammatory mediated was identified as the most probable cause of iron deficiency in obesity. Adipose tissue is recognized as an endocrine organ that contribute to the inflammatory process by secreting proinflammatory cytokines, and The role of hepcidin in the

regulation of iron metabolism has been emphasized in recent

years. Hepcidin represents the main regulator of intestinal iron

absorption and macrophage iron release and, thus, ultimately

of the iron available for erythropoiesis.

 

 

Results: A high statistically significant association (P<0.05) was observed between IDA and the increase in trunk and total

fat. We noted a decrease in ferritin, Hemoglobin, serum iron

and RBC with an increase in % fat. There was a statistically

significant correlation between the trunk fat% and iron status indicators: ferritin (r = -0.48), Hb (r= -0.64), serum iron (r= -0.29) and RBC (r= -0.51). Results indicated a significant

decrease in hepcidin with an increase in total and trunk fat. A

strong negative correlation between hepcidin, total body fat

and trunk fat.