EPO and nutritional disorder: Surprisingly, and in contrast to male mice, liver carcinogenesis in female p53LKO mice produces an overall systemic iron deficiency, characterized by low serum iron levels, high erythropoietin (EPO) levels, and low serum hepcidin that was accompanied by a decline in hepatic hepcidin mRNA expression, increase in TfR1 and no change in Fpn mRNA levels (Fig. 5e-i).