Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 10, 2026

Quantitating Iron Transport Across the Mouse Placenta In Vivo Using Nonradioactive Iron Isotopes

Quantitating Iron Transport Across the Mouse Placenta In Vivo Using Nonradioactive Iron Isotopes

Published on: May 10, 2022

Study of maternal influences on fetal iron status at term using cord blood transferrin receptors

D G Sweet¹, G Savage, T R Tubman

¹Department of Child Health, The Queen's University of Belfast and Regional Neonatal Unit, Royal Maternity Hospital, Belfast, UK. dsweet@dnet.co.uk

Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition

|December 23, 2000

Aims:

To determine effects of maternal iron depletion and smoking on iron status of term babies using serum transferrin receptors (STfR) and their ratio to ferritin (TfR-F index) in cord blood.

Methods:

Iron, ferritin, STfR, and haemoglobin (Hb) concentration were measured and TfR-F index calculated in 67 cord /maternal blood pairs. Twenty six mothers were iron depleted (ferritin <10 microg/l) and 28 were smokers.

Results:

Maternal iron depletion was associated with decreased cord ferritin (113 v 171 microg/l) and Hb (156 v 168 g/l) but no change in STfR or TfR-F index. Smoking was associated with increased cord Hb (168 v 157 g/l) and TfR-F index (4.1 v 3.4), and decreased ferritin (123 v 190 microg/l). Cord TfR-F index and Hb were positively correlated (r = 0.48).

Conclusions:

Maternal iron depletion is associated with reduced fetal iron stores but no change in free iron availability. Smoking is associated with increased fetal iron requirements for erythropoiesis.

Related Concept Videos

Transcytosis of IgG

Transcytosis of IgG

Transcytosis is the process in which molecules are internalized by endocytosis, transported across the cell, and released through exocytosis from the opposite end of the cell. Molecules such as insulin, immunoglobulins, and certain nutrients are transferred through the recycling endosomes by recycling and transcytosis.
IgG molecules from a mother undergo transcytosis starting around 13 weeks of gestation. The amount of IgG transferred and entering the fetal blood circulation increases with...

The Early Endosome: Endocytosis of Transferrin

The Early Endosome: Endocytosis of Transferrin

Essential proteins such as insulin or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and micronutrients such as iron enter a eukaryotic cell through receptor-mediated endocytosis. Subsequently, the early endosomes fuse with the vesicles containing such receptor-ligand complexes and play a vital role in sorting the incoming ligands and receptors. While the ligands are either degraded inside the vesicle or released into the cytosol, their receptors are returned to the plasma membrane for further rounds of...

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Increasing the use of Radical Radiotherapy is Associated with Improved Lung Cancer Specific Survival-A Regional Population-based Patient-level Study.

Clinical oncology (Royal College of Radiologists (Great Britain))·2026

Using systems mapping to understand the constraints and enablers of solutions to plastic pollution.

Journal of environmental management·2024

ICARUS at the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino program: initial operation.

The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields·2023

Scintillation light detection in the 6-m drift-length ProtoDUNE Dual Phase liquid argon TPC.

The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields·2022

Prospects for beyond the Standard Model physics searches at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment: DUNE Collaboration.

The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields·2021

Odderon Exchange from Elastic Scattering Differences between pp and pp[over ¯] Data at 1.96 TeV and from pp Forward Scattering Measurements.

Physical review letters·2021

See all related articles