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. 2013 Mar;33(3):177-81.
doi: 10.1038/jp.2012.81. Epub 2012 Jun 21.

Obesity during pregnancy and fetal iron status: is Hepcidin the link?

M C Dao  1 , S Sen, C Iyer, D Klebenov, S N Meydani
Affiliations

Obesity during pregnancy and fetal iron status: is Hepcidin the link?

M C Dao et al. J Perinatol. 2013 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: To ascertain the effect of obesity-related inflammation on maternal and fetal iron status. We hypothesized that obese (Ob) pregnant women would have increased inflammation, hepcidin levels, and that their infants would have impaired iron status compared with lean (Lc) controls.

Study design: Fifteen Ob and fifteen Lc women were recruited in their second trimester of pregnancy. Markers of iron status, inflammation and hepcidin were measured in maternal and cord blood. Student's t-test was used to compare Ob and Lc groups, and Pearson's correlation coefficients were determined between maternal and cord blood values.

Result: Maternal C-reactive protein (P<0.01) and hepcidin (P<0.01) were higher, and cord blood iron (P<0.01) was lower in the Ob group. Maternal body mass index (P<0.01) and hepcidin (P<0.05) were negatively correlated with cord blood iron status.

Conclusion: Maternal obesity is associated with impaired maternal-fetal iron transfer, potentially through hepcidin upregulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Hepcidin, inflammation and iron status in maternal and cord blood
Maternal and cord blood CRP, IL-6, hepcidin, serum iron and Tsat were measured as described in methods and Student’s t test was used to determine differences between Ob and Lc groups (*p=0.01, **p<0.01). Mean ± SE are shown.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Correlations between maternal BMI and maternal hepcidin with cord blood iron status
Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was used to determine correlations between maternal BMI and cord blood iron status, and between maternal hepcidin and cord blood iron status. Correlation coefficients (r) and p values are shown. Cord blood data was not available from all subjects due to technical limitations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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