The major limitation of the study is the small cohort, making it underpowered to perform sub-analyses of various patient groups, e.g. NAFLD without DIOS, alcoholic liver disease or hepatitis C. Also, the smaller size and the younger age of the control group in the present study, relative to the patient cohort, is a limitation when comparing serum hepcidin levels in liver disease patients and healthy controls. The gene discussed is HAMP; the disease is hepatitis C virus infection.