A recent investigation of 67 EPP patients (51 Italian: 35 male and 16 female; 16 Swiss: 5 male and 11 female) compared to 21 healthy volunteers excluded the presence of anemia of chronic disease (ACD) in such patients, who had significantly decreased levels of hepcidin compared to the healthy volunteers, supporting the hypothesis of an absolute iron deficiency, possibly secondary to an inefficient iron adsorption at the intestinal level (through a hepcidin-independent mechanism) or to an undetected iron loss [56]. This evidence concerns the gene HAMP and granular corneal dystrophy type II.