Consequences of Maternal Iron‐Deficiency: Fetal Anemia, and Hypoxia in Select Tissues of the Conceptus
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Iron deficiency (ID) is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency worldwide, and affects populations across the socio‐economic spectrum. The incidence of ID anemia in pregnant women is of chief concern, with rates as high as 80 % in developing countries, and a prevalence of 23 % in Canada. Maternal ID during pregnancy has been shown to impact fetal iron status and growth trajectories, although the precise mechanisms underlying this intrauterine growth restriction are unknown. We hypothesized that maternal ID causes fetal hypoxia, resulting in asymmetric growth restriction in more severe ID. Female rats (initial age 6 weeks for severe (S‐ID), 9 weeks for moderate (M‐ID)) were fed iron restricted diets throughout pregnancy. Dams were treated with pimonidazole on gestational day (GD)20 to assess hypoxia (<10 mm Hg O 2 ). Maternal and fetal hemoglobin (Hb) levels and body weights were assessed on GD21. Pup organs were excised and weighed to assess degree of asymmetric growth restriction. Tissue immunofluorescence was carried out on GD21 pup tissues with fluorescent probes to detect covalent pimonidazole adducts. Both M‐ and S‐ID groups caused fetal anemia ( fetal Hb reduced 30.9 % and 63.8 %, respectively, compared to control of 9.27 g/dL, P<0.01), despite only S‐ID dams becoming anemic (reduction in Hb 10.9 % and 50.3 % for M‐ and S‐ID, respectively, compared to 13.60 g/dL control Hb, P<0.001). Both M‐ and S‐ID caused fetal growth restriction (reduced weight by 9.1 % and 34.9 %, respectively, compared to control weight of 5.45 g, P<0.001). S‐ID, but not M‐ID, caused asymmetrical growth restriction, wherein relative heart and brain weights increased (60 % and 9.8 %, respectively, compared to control weights of 0.005 g/g and 0.041 g/g, P<0.01), and kidney and liver size decreased (20 % and 15 %, respectively, compared to control weights of 0.005 g/g and 0.067 g/g, P<0.01). M‐ID was associated with increased staining for pimonidazole in fetal livers (P=0.01) and kidneys (P=0.01), but not in brains and placentae, versus respective controls; hypoxia staining is S‐ID fetuses is ongoing. Fetal anemia and growth restriction can occur in the absence of maternal anemia, emphasizing the need for new methods of assessment in the clinical setting. Elucidation of the mechanisms through which ID impacts fetal growth and development will enable us to develop a platform with which we can test novel therapeutics. Support or Funding Information AW held an Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Summer Studentship. SB Holds grants from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), and the Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI).
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".