Effect of Iron Supplementation on Plasma Lipid Levels in Pregnant Anemic Women

Background & Aims: The present study deals with an investigation on the effect of iron deficiency anemia and iron supplementation on anemia markers and plasma lipid profiles in pregnant women. Methods: A total of 350 pregnant women were taken and divided into four groups on the basis of haemoglobin levels viz. control (100), mild (100), moderate (100) and severe (50) patients. All the groups were treated orally with 100 mg of iron and 500 μg of folic acid daily for hundred days. Results: Iron deficient pregnant women reflected a significant increase in plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), triglyceride (TG), lipid peroxide levels (LPx) and serum transferrin receptor levels (sTfR) while reduced concentration of plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL), iron (Fe), total lipid (TL), total cholesterol (TC) phospholipid (PL), serum ferritin and haemoglobin (Hb) and haematocrit (Hct) levels. Iron supplementation with folic acid indicated reverse changes in plasma Hb, Hct, Fe TL, TC, PL, TfR and ferritin except HDL levels. Moreover, iron treatment increases the rate of LPx, LDL, VLDL and TG levels. Conclusion: Besides, the results entails that iron supplementation returns to Hb levels but at the cost of lipoprotein oxidation especially in control and base line anemic women. Conclusively data of this study provide new insights into exploring a relationship between iron status and lipoprotein oxidation. However, further studies, including bigger sample size are mandatory to further irresolution of this problem.