Mari S Golub, Casey E Hogrefe, Alice F Tarantal, Stacey L Germann, John L Beard
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 83, No. 3, 647-656, March 2006
Background: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is relatively common in the third trimester of pregnancy, but causal associations with low birth weight and compromised neonatal iron status are difficult to establish in human populations.
Objective: The objective was to determine the effects of diet-induced IDA on intrauterine growth and neonatal iron status in an appropriate animal model for third-trimester IDA in women.
Design: Hematologic and iron-status measures, pregnancy outcomes, and fetal and neonatal evaluations were compared between pregnant rhesus monkeys (n = 14) fed a diet containing 10 µg Fe/g diet from the time of pregnancy detection (gestation days 28–30) and controls (n = 24) fed 100 µg Fe/g diet.
Results: By the third trimester, 79% of the iron-deprived
dams and 29% of the control monkeys had a hemoglobin concentration <11 g/dL.
There were also significant group differences in hematocrit, mean corpuscular
volume, transferrin saturation, serum ferritin, and serum iron. At birth, the
newborns of monkeys iron-deprived during pregnancy had significantly lower
hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin values and
a lower ratio of erythroid to total colony-forming units in bone marrow than did
the control newborns. Pregnancy weight gain did not differ significantly between
the iron-deprived and control dams, and the fetuses and newborns of the
iron-deprived dams were not growth retarded relative to the controls. Gestation
length, the number of stillbirths, and neonatal neurobehavioral test scores did
not differ significantly by diet group.