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Maternal prenatal iron status and tissue organization in the neonatal brain
Catherine Monk1,2,3, Michael K Georgieff4, Dongrong Xu5
1Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York.
Insights
Maternal prenatal iron intake influences newborn brain organization. Higher iron intake is linked to altered fractional anisotropy (FA) in gray matter, suggesting impacts on early brain development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- Inadequate prenatal iron is linked to impaired infant motor and neurocognitive development.
- No previous studies have investigated maternal iron intake's effect on newborn brain tissue organization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the association between maternal third-trimester iron intake and newborn brain tissue organization.
- To explore the relationship between maternal iron status and infant brain development.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Automated Self-Administered 24-h Dietary Recall for iron intake assessment in 40 pregnant adolescents.
- Acquired newborn Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) scans to measure fractional anisotropy (FA).
- Analyzed cord blood ferritin in a subsample for correlation with DTI findings.
Main Results:
- Maternal iron intake showed an inverse association with newborn FA values in cortical gray matter (P ≤ 0.0001).
- Findings were consistent when using cord blood ferritin levels.
- Higher maternal iron intake correlated with altered FA, suggesting impacts on brain maturation.
Conclusions:
- Maternal prenatal iron intake influences the normal age-related decline in gray matter FA values.
- These effects may relate to dendritic arborization and synapse formation.
- Subtle variations in maternal iron intake impact infant brain development, extending beyond standard clinical monitoring.
Background:
Children prenatally exposed to inadequate iron have poorer motor and neurocognitive development. No prior study to our knowledge has assessed the influence of maternal prenatal iron intake on newborn brain tissue organization in full-term infants.
Methods:
Third trimester daily iron intake was obtained using the Automated Self-Administered 24-h Dietary Recall with n = 40 healthy pregnant adolescents (aged 14-19 y). Cord blood ferritin was collected in a subsample (n = 16). Newborn (mean = 39 gestational weeks at birth; range 37-41) magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired on a 3.0 Tesla MR Scanner. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) slices were acquired to measure the directional diffusion of water indexed by fractional anisotropy (FA).
Results:
Reported iron intake was inversely associated with newborn FA values (P ≤ 0.0001) predominantly in cortical gray matter. FA findings were similar using cord blood ferritin values.
Conclusion:
Higher maternal prenatal iron intake accentuates, and lower intake attenuates, the normal age-related decline in FA values in gray matter, perhaps representing increasing dendritic arborization and synapse formation with higher iron intake. These DTI results suggest that typical variation in maternal iron outside the scope of standard clinical surveillance exerts subtle effects on infant brain development.
