Laboratory of Iron Molecular Biology, Department of Molecular Biology, Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 05-552 Jastrzębiec, Poland.
Laboratory of Genetics and Evolutionism, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, 30-387 Kraków, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Oct 18;25(20):11215. doi: 10.3390/ijms252011215.
Preterm infants are most at risk of iron deficiency. However, our knowledge of the regulation of iron homeostasis in preterm infants is poor. The main goal of our research was to develop and validate an animal model of human prematurity to assess iron status in preterm infants. We performed a cesarean section on sows on the 109th day of pregnancy, which corresponds to the last trimester of human pregnancy. Preterm piglets showed decreased body weight, red blood cell indices, plasma iron level and transferrin saturation. Interestingly, higher hepatic and splenic non-heme iron content and plasma and hepatic ferritin levels were found in premature piglets compared with term ones. In addition, premature piglets showed higher mRNA levels of iron-regulatory hormone hepcidin in the liver than term animals, which have not been reflected in higher plasma hepcidin-25 levels. We also showed changes in hepcidin regulators, including hepatic bone morphogenetic protein 6, plasma erythroferrone and growth differentiation factor 15 in preterm piglets. Consequently, no difference was observed in iron-exporter ferroportin levels in the spleen and liver. Overall, it seems that premature piglets show a pattern of iron metabolism characteristic of functional iron deficiency and iron accumulation in the tissue.
早产儿最容易患缺铁症。然而，我们对早产儿铁平衡的调节机制知之甚少。我们研究的主要目的是建立和验证一种人类早产动物模型，以评估早产儿的铁状况。我们在妊娠第 109 天对母猪进行剖腹产，相当于人类妊娠的最后一个月。早产儿体重、红细胞指数、血浆铁水平和转铁蛋白饱和度均降低。有趣的是，与足月仔猪相比，早产儿肝脏和脾脏的非血红素铁含量以及血浆和肝脏铁蛋白水平更高。此外，与足月动物相比，早产儿肝脏中铁调节激素铁调素的 mRNA 水平更高，但血浆铁调素-25 水平并未升高。我们还发现了铁调素调节剂的变化，包括肝脏骨形态发生蛋白 6、血浆红细胞生成素和生长分化因子 15 在早产仔猪中。因此，脾脏和肝脏中的铁输出蛋白铁蛋白水平没有差异。总的来说，早产儿的铁代谢模式似乎表现出功能性缺铁和组织中铁蓄积的特征。
