However, the number of women with Hb levels below these pre-specified cut-offs was quite low, and may not adequately reflect iron deficiency in this population.
We used rich medium (TSB) as an in vitro comparator condition, although minimal medium such as Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium may better reflect iron-limited conditions in vivo.
This may reflect immediate iron utilization in the bone marrow, underestimation of total calculated iron deficit and/or ongoing losses which suggest a need for additional iron to avoid recurrent IDA.
These findings may be explained by reduced oxygen transportation from the mother to fetus and may reflect inadequate iron reserves during early pregnancy.
Moreover, children with NAFLD have higher serum levels of hepcidin in comparison with obese children without NAFLD which may reflect higher iron stores or inflammation [ 41].
However, SI does not reflect iron storage.
However, low iron stores result in the induction of synthesis of TfRs and they also reflect iron requirement [ 36].
These data may reflect the ability of iron to block expression of all three prrF-encoded RNAs, leading to complete de-repression of these target mRNAs, while addition of heme preferentially represses expression of the PrrH RNA, still allowing for some PrrF-mediated repression of these genes.
The TURP-induced reduction in placental iron content may reflect either the reduced availability of maternal serum iron and/or the demand to sustain the fetal development during the hypoferremia [68].
As for heart disease, the link found in some studies to high levels of heme iron consumption may reflect the effect of saturated fats from red meat, the richest source of heme iron, more than that of iron itself.
