Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2019 Sep;86(3):396-402.
doi: 10.1038/s41390-019-0433-5. Epub 2019 May 26.

Maternal anemia type during pregnancy is associated with anemia risk among offspring during infancy

Ajibola I Abioye  1   2   3 , Emily A McDonald  1   2   3 , Sangshin Park  4   5   6   7 , Kelsey Ripp  1   8   9 , Brady Bennett  2   10   11 , Hannah W Wu  1   2   3 , Sunthorn Pond-Tor  1   2   12 , Marianne J Sagliba  13 , Amabelle J Amoylen  13 , Palmera I Baltazar  14 , Veronica Tallo  13 , Luz P Acosta  13 , Remigio M Olveda  13 , Jonathan D Kurtis  1   2   12 , Jennifer F Friedman  1   2   3
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Maternal anemia type during pregnancy is associated with anemia risk among offspring during infancy

Ajibola I Abioye et al. Pediatr Res. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Background: We evaluated the association between etiology of maternal anemia and iron status throughout infancy.

Methods: Samples from a study designed to examine Praziquantel treatment during pregnancy were used (n = 359). All women were infected with schistosomiasis and randomized to Praziquantel or placebo at 16 ± 2 weeks' gestation. Hemoglobin, serum ferritin (SF), soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), hepcidin, C-reactive protein, and interleukin-6 were measured in maternal and infant blood. The relationship between both maternal Praziquantel treatment and etiology of anemia and infant iron status was evaluated.

Results: Maternal iron-deficiency anemia was associated with increased risk of infant anemia at 6 months of age. Infants of mothers with the lowest levels of circulating hepcidin during gestation, likely a marker for iron deficiency, had higher sTfR:SF levels and lower hemoglobin levels, particularly at 12 months of age. Maternal non-iron-deficiency anemia (NIDA) did not impact infant anemia risk or iron status. Maternal treatment for schistosomiasis had no effect on infant hematologic status.

Conclusions: Maternal iron deficiency anemia was associated with an increased risk for anemia or iron deficiency during late infancy. We did not observe an association between maternal NIDA and increased risk for iron deficiency during infancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Study participants.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Prevalence of infants’ anemia at six months is highest in infants born to mothers who had iron deficiency anemia during gestation.
Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. * P < 0.05.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Maternal hepcidin (a) but not newborn hepcidin (b) is related to infant iron status at twelve months of age.
a) Infants of mothers with the lowest hepcidin during pregnancy displayed the highest sTfR-ferritin index, and thus the lowest iron status, at twelve months of age. Infants born to those mothers with hepcidin levels in the lowest tertile had significantly higher sTfR-F index values at twelve months compared to six months of age. b) Fetal hepcidin levels were not related to infant iron status at either six or twelve months of age. CB: cord blood, error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals. ** P < 0.01.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Maternal circulating hepcidin (a) but not fetal hepcidin (b) is related to infant hemoglobin concentration at twelve months of age.
a) Infants from mothers with the lowest hepcidin during pregnancy displayed the lowest hemoglobin levels at twelve months of age. Infants born to those mothers with hepcidin levels in the lowest tertile had significantly lower hemoglobin values at twelve months compared to six months of age. b) Newborn hepcidin levels were not related to infant hemoglobin at either six or twelve months of age. CB: cord blood, error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals. * P < 0.05. *** P < 0.01.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.. Hematologic and inflammatory biomarker concentrations are related to infants’ anemia type at six (a-d) and twelve (e-f) months of age.
IL-6 and hepcidin are lower and sTfR is higher in six month old infants with IDA compared to others. This trend continues at twelve months of age. Further, IL-6 and hepcidin are higher and sTfR lower in six month old infants with NIDA compared to non-anemic infants at six and twelve months, respectively. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. Asterisk symbols, *, ** and *** represent p<0.05, p<0.01 and p<0.001 respectively and compare the concentration of each biomarker by anemia type.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Stevens G, Finucane M, De-Regil L, et al. Global, regional, and national trends in haemoglobin concentration and prevalence of total and severe anaemia in children and pregnancy and non-pregnant women for 1995–2011: a systematic analysis of population-representative data. Lancet Glob Health 2013;1:e16–25. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Menon K, Ferguson E, Thomson C, et al. Effects of anemia at different stages of gestation on infant outcomes. Nutrition 2016;32:61–5. - PubMed
    1. Clardy SL, Wang X, Zhao W, et al. Acute and chronic effects of developmental iron deficiency on mRNA expression patterns in the brain. J Neural Transm Suppl 2006:173–96. - PubMed
    1. de Deungria M, Rao R, Wobken JD, Luciana M, Nelson CA, Georgieff MK. Perinatal iron deficiency decreases cytochrome c oxidase (CytOx) activity in selected regions of neonatal rat brain. Pediatr Res 2000;48:169–76. - PubMed
    1. Felt BT, Lozoff B. Brain iron and behavior of rats are not normalized by treatment of iron deficiency anemia during early development. J Nutr 1996;126:693–701. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms