Association of HFE Gene Mutations With Liver Cirrhosis Depends on Induction of Iron Homeostasis Disturbances

I read with the interest the paper by Jowkar et al. published in a recent issue of Hepatitis Monthly (1). The authors analysed the frequency of two HFE gene mutations in Iranian patients with a diagnosis of cryptogenic cirrhosis. In Europe, North America and Australia the homozygous C282Y mutation of the HFE gene is a major etiological factor associated with the pathogenesis of progressive iron accumulation leading to multiorgan disfunction, as it is observed in hereditary hemochromatosis. About 5% of hereditary hemochromatosis cases in the Caucasian population are related to compound heterozygosity for C282Y and H63D mutations (2).