Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Nutrients. 2022 Sep 21;14(19):3913. doi: 10.3390/nu14193913.
Iron supplements are frequently provided to infants in high-income countries despite low incidence of iron deficiency. There is growing concern regarding adverse health and development outcomes of excess iron provision in early life. Excess iron may directly damage developing organs through the formation of reactive oxygen species, alter systemic inflammatory signaling, and/or dysregulate trace mineral metabolism. To better characterize the in vivo effects of excess iron on development, we utilized a pre-weanling rat pup model. Lewis rat litters were culled to eight pups (four males and four females) and randomly assigned to daily supplementation groups receiving either vehicle control (CON; 10% sucrose solution) or ferrous sulfate (FS) iron at one of the following doses: 10, 30, or 90 mg iron/kg body weight-FS-10, FS-30, and FS-90, respectively-from postnatal day (PD) 2 through 9. FS-90 litters, but not FS-30 or FS-10, failed to thrive compared to CON litters and had smaller brains on PD 10. Among the groups, FS-90 liver iron levels were highest, as were white blood cell counts. Compared to CON, circulating MCP-1 and liver zinc were increased in FS-90 pups, whereas liver copper was decreased. Growth defects due to excess FS provision in pre-weanling rats may be related to liver injury, inflammation, and altered trace mineral metabolism.
尽管缺铁症的发病率较低，高收入国家仍经常为婴儿补充铁剂。人们越来越关注在生命早期过量补铁对健康和发育的不良影响。过量的铁可能通过形成活性氧直接损害发育中的器官，改变全身炎症信号，和/或扰乱痕量矿物质代谢。为了更好地描述过量铁对发育的体内影响，我们利用了一个新生期大鼠幼崽模型。将 Lewis 大鼠幼崽减少到 8 只（4 只雄性和 4 只雌性），并随机分配到每天接受以下一种补充剂的组中：载体对照（CON；10%蔗糖溶液）或硫酸亚铁（FS）铁，剂量分别为 10、30 或 90 mg/kg 体重-FS-10、FS-30 和 FS-90。与 CON 组相比，FS-90 组的幼崽生长不良，且大脑较小，而 FS-30 或 FS-10 组没有这种情况。在这些组中，FS-90 肝脏铁含量最高，白细胞计数也最高。与 CON 相比，FS-90 幼崽的循环单核细胞趋化蛋白 1 和肝脏锌含量增加，而肝脏铜含量减少。新生期大鼠中过量 FS 供应引起的生长缺陷可能与肝脏损伤、炎症和痕量矿物质代谢改变有关。
