Oxidative effect of several intravenous iron complexes in the rat

The objective of this study was to compare the oxidative stress induced in rat internal organs by the administration of the following clinically used intravenous (IV) iron (Fe) containing compounds: iron sucrose (IS), iron dextran (ID), ferric carboxymaltose and ferumoxytol. Groups of six adult rats received 1 mg/kg of each compound weekly for 5 doses. Seven days following the last dose, animals were euthanized and tissue samples of heart, lung, liver, and kidney were obtained, washed in warmed saline and frozen under liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 °C for analysis for nitrotyrosine (NT) and dinitro phenyl (DNP) as markers of oxidative stress. All tissues showed a similar pattern of oxidative stress. All Fe products stimulated an increase in the tissue concentration of both NT and DNP. In general, DNP was stimulated significantly less than NT except for IS. DNP was stimulated to an equal degree except for ID where NT was significantly higher than the NT concentrations in all other Fe compounds. ID produced over 10-fold the concentration of NT than any other Fe. IV Fe compounds present a risk of oxidative stress to a variety of internal organs. However, we found that IS was the least damaging and ID was the worst.