Endocrine Abstracts

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most pervasive of all nutritional deficiencies and is considered very serious during pregnancy, with deleterious consequences for both the mother and her developing fetus. The female albino rats of Wistar strain were fed on iron deficient diets (30, 15, 7 and 2 mgFe/kg of diet) and control diets (50 mgFe/kg of diet). Prior to one month of mating the females were anaesthetised by ether and the tail blood was collected for the evaluation of blood hemoglobin, hematocrit and estimation of adrenocorticotropic hormone. The rats were then kept for mating and the mating was confirmed by detection of a vaginal plug, and this day was denoted as day 0. The tail blood was further collected during 18th–20th day of gestation and after eight weeks of delivery. As a result of dietary iron deficiency the preterm and premature deliveries were observed in severely anemic mothers. The weights of the neonates born to anemic mothers decreased as compared to those born to normal control mothers. The survival and the number of neonates found unchanged. Peripartum changes in the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were noted as the hormone levels increased during pregnancy, with decrease in maternal dietary iron contents. Increasing ACTH in anemic mothers probably had stimulated corticotrophin-releasing hormones in the fetuses that diminished the blocking effect of progesterone and resulted in preterm and premature deliveries. After eight weeks of deliveries the ACTH level of the severe anemic mothers sharply goes down, these severe anemic mothers failed to lactate and became week and fatigue and could not conceive further possibly due to postpartum hypopituitarism.