Maternal Iron Deficiency and Environmental Lead (Pb) Exposure Alter the Predictive Value of Blood Pb Levels on Brain Pb Burden in the Offspring in a Dietary Mouse Model: An Important Consideration for Cumulative Risk in Development

Maternal iron deficiency (ID) and environmental lead (Pb) exposure are co-occurring insults that both affect the neurodevelopment of offspring. Few studies have investigated how ID affects brain-region-specific Pb accumulations using human-relevant concentrations. Furthermore, these exposures impact blood brain Fe levels remains unclear. Importantly, we also wanted to determine whether use as a surrogate for burden is affected by underlying status. We exposed virgin Swiss Webster female mice one six conditions differing diet water concentration (0 ppm, 19 or 50 ppm acetate) used Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry measure maternal offspring circulating, stored, levels. found rendered iron-deficient anemic led region-specific depletion was exacerbated in dose-specific manner. The postnatal anemia cortical hippocampal accumulation. Interestingly, BPb only correlated with pups but not IN conclude significantly increases alone insufficient clinical make extrapolations on burden.