Micronutrients & Behaviour Baste on 23 Mar 2007 10:18 am
Gestational Iron Deficiency Affects Offspring Behaviour
Source: The Journal of Nutrition (2007) 137: 979-984
Article Type: Original Research
Authors: MS Golub, CE Hogrefe, SL Germann
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Iron deficiency (ID) during pregnancy, especially the third trimester, is common throughout the world. Aside from affecting maternal heath, ID already at moderate levels has been shown to hamper brain development and cognition not only in animal but also human subjects.
In their current paper, Golub et al. report on the impact of iron deprivation during foetal development (third trimester) on behaviour in juvenile rhesus monkeys. Athough ID compromised haematological status, no effect was seen on growth or neurological function at birth (Golub et al., AJCN 2006). However, when animals were reassessed from 6 to 12 months of age, prenatally iron-deprived juveniles had significantly “altered behavioural regulation in learning and memory tasks. (…) In relation to conceptualization of childhood behaviour, they demonstrated lower reactive control, greater impulsivity, reduced harm avoidance, and greater novelty seeking.” As possible explanation, the authors suggest changes in the brain dopamine D2 receptor system, which has been reported to be decreased upon states of prenatal ID.
In light of the above mentioned data, the widespread occurrence of ID and anemia in women of child-bearing age is really unfortunate, and just reminds one that interventions such as supplementation and fortification are obviously still not efficient enough to ensure adequate dietary iron intake in this particularly vulnerable part of the population.