How important is iron in the prenatal period?

The professor also added that this problem also applies to the USA. Children whose mothers are obese are at greater risk of iron deficiency. Moreover, the number of children obese increases, and overweight or obesity are obvious factors of iron deficiency.

Johnson and the other authors of the study conducted an experiment on 2-day-old newborn pigs, feeding them one of three previously developed diets. the control group diet included a large amount of iron, the second – slightly below the norm, the third was poor in this element. The piglet’s brain has grown to almost half its size in the first 4 weeks of life. Over the next 8 weeks, the researchers noticed that the piglet’s brain had a similar growth rate to that of the human brain. After 4 weeks, prof. Johnson began testing the cognitive abilities of the pigs in a T-shaped maze. Piglets were trained using visual cues from outside the maze. The animals were supposed to find the prize – milk – which was always in one place and direction. The control piglets had no problem with this task, but the piglets that were fed withiron deficiencyhave not learned to perform their assigned tasks. Only 50% of the tested animals from this group were able to reach the required point. The second group, consuming food with a low concentration of iron, showed moderate cognitive ability. In the second phase of the research, the location of the milk reward was changed to the opposite. The piglets were retested to evaluate the learning to “pull back” to see if they would cope with a completely new situation. “We changed the rules so the piglets change their thinking strategy,” Johnson explained. «This type of task is much more demanding. Moreover, the results of the experiment turned out to be similar to the previous ones. Piglets from the control group had no problems with the experiment – the remaining groups had more difficulties with this. » Scientists examined iron levels in different areas of the brain. The reduced level of this element was observed in hipokampie, a region of the brain that plays an important role in spatial perception, learning and memory. «Our research reveals a new model for the effects of nutrient deficiency in our bodies in the prenatal period and in the early months of our lives on health and a shaping intelligence»- say the researchers. They also add that piglets are easier to carry out than other animals because they can be removed from their mother early after birth. These are not the only studies recently carried out by scientists from the University of Illinois – the results of a study examining the effects of a viral infection causing pneumonia during pregnancy and later in piglets’ lives will be published in the near future. source: ScienceNews.pl

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