The Effect of Fetal and Early Postnatal Iron Deficiency on Iron Metabolism in Adult Rats

Abstract

Undernutrition during pregnancy and/or lactation plays an important role on the overall health of offspring later in life. Using a rodent model, the present study was conducted to examine the effect of fetal and early postnatal iron deficiency on iron metabolism in adult animals. Rats were treated with three stages of low or normal iron diets from gestation until the end of the study. During the first stage (4 weeks prior to 3 weeks after pregnancy, total 7 weeks), two groups of adult females (dams) were fed with either a low-iron (7.4 mg iron/kg, group LD) or control-iron (274 mg/kg, group CD) diet. During the second stage (from 3 to 13 weeks of age, total 10 weeks), all pups from stage 1 (both the LD and CD groups) were placed on a control-iron diet for 10 weeks (groups LD-CD and CD-CD, respectively). During the third stage (from 13 to 29 weeks of age, total 16 weeks), both LD-CD and CD-CD groups from stage 2 were fed with a low-iron (named LD-CD-LD and CD-CD-LD groups, respectively). We found that the live birth rate of the offspring of the LD dams (84.7 %) was significantly lower than that of the CD dams (95.4 %). During stage 2, the mean body weight of the LD-CD male or LD-CD female rats exceeded the CD-CD male rats (p < 0.05). Compared with the CD-CD-LD rats, the LD-CD-LD rats had significantly increased total iron binding capacity, and higher levels of transferrin, serum erythropoietin (EPO), renal EPO mRNA, duodenal divalent metal transporter-1, and renal transferrin receptors. These findings indicate that rats with an early-life experience of iron deficiency (during pregnancy and the nursing period) can develop stronger iron absorption capabilities in adulthood.

Prenatal Iron Deficiency in Guinea Pigs Increases Locomotor Activity but Does Not Influence Learning and Memory

“…However, the current study, by using more precise tools (video tracking systems and behavioural analysis softwares) and analyzing additional variables, supports and refines our previous conclusion. In addition to elevated activity levels in the OFTs (although solely on PNd40) and no effects within the MWM, our pups from the IDA group presented particularly low survival rates, as in Fu et al [ 30 ]. The practice of replicating the previous study has also brought forth several hypotheses as to the cause of this increase in activity, mainly that prenatal IDA provoked augmented anxiety, and that these effects may emerge later in life.…”

“…In this study [ 37 ], the prenatally ID pups had significantly lower hemoglobin and hematocrit levels than IS pups (ID: M = 78.6 g /L, M = 0.24%; IS: M = 129.2 g /L, M = 0.37%). It is also documented that maternal iron status is directly related to newborn iron status [ 6 , 30 ], and our females were significantly IDA during pregnancy. We are therefore quite confident that our IDA guinea pig pups were IDA at birth.…”

“…Postnatal ID research has also exhibited learning deficits in T-tests with piglets [ 24 ], reduced swimming speed and impaired memory and learning capabilities in water maze problems in rats [ 25 – 27 ], increasing inactivity in rats [ 22 , 28 ], and weakened grip-strength in mice [ 29 ]. Recently however, the amount of studies observing the effects of postnatal ID has significantly decreased, and the focus has shifted towards the effects of prenatal ID [ 30 ]—a prevailing worldwide issue [ 1 ].…”

“…Rats presented poor water-maze [ 38 , 39 ], trace conditioning [ 40 ], and passive avoidance abilities [ 41 ], and displayed pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) deficits in acoustic-startle response tasks [ 42 ]. They were also hesitant in novel settings [ 38 ], increasingly inactive and anxious [ 43 ], had low birth weights [ 30 , 44 ], poor sensorimotor development scores [ 38 , 39 ], and had high mortality rates [ 30 ]. Prenatally iron deficient mice also had low water-maze performance scores, had attenuated startle responsiveness, and demonstrated reduced grip-strength [ 23 ].…”

Physicochemical characteristics of a nanocomposite film based on purified sodium carboxymethylcellulose and selenium nanoparticles

“…At modest levels, SeNP supplementation appears to have a good impact on many other bodily processes, such as the prevention of cancer, heart disease, and inflammation, as well as blood pressure regulation 27 . In many investigations, it demonstrated strong cytotoxicity in the low micromolar range against cancerous cells, including lung, 28 prostate, 29 cervica, 30 ovarian, 31 and colon 32 cancer cells.…”