ABSTRACT
Objective@#To analyze the rate of erythrocyte iron incorporation and provided guidance for the iron nutrition for prepubertal children.@*Methods@#Fifty-seven prepubertal children of Beijing were involved in this study and each subject was orally administered 3 mg of Fe twice daily to obtain a total of 30 mg Fe after a 5-d period. The stable isotope ratios in RBCs were determined in 14th day, 28th day, 60th day, and 90th day. The erythrocyte incorporation rate in children was calculated using the stable isotope ratios, blood volume and body iron mass.@*Results@#The percentage of erythrocyte Fe incorporation increased starting 14 th day, reached a peak at 60 d (boys: 19.67% ± 0.56%, girls: 21.33% ± 0.59%) and then decreased. The erythrocyte incorporation rates of Fe obtained for girls in 60th day was significantly higher than those obtained for boys ( < 0.0001).@*Conclusions@#The oral administration of Fe to children can be used to obtain erythrocyte iron incorporation within 90 d. Prepubertal girls should begin to increase the intake of iron and further studies should pay more attention to the iron status in prepubertal children.
Subject(s)
Child , Female , Humans , Male , Beijing , Erythrocytes , Metabolism , Iron , Metabolism , Iron Isotopes , Mass Spectrometry , MethodsABSTRACT
Iron amino acid chelate is being increasingly considered in programs for iron fortification of foods. The bioavailability of iron bis-glycinate chelate given in water was studied using a double-isotopic method in a group of 14 women. Iron absorption from aqueous solutions of 15 mg/L of elemental iron as either iron bis-glycine chelate or ferrous ascorbate was not significantly different (34.6 and 29.9 respectively). Standardized iron absorption of the iron bis-glycinate was 46.3 (standardized to 40 absorption of the reference dose). There was a significant correlations between (ln) iron absorption of iron bis-glycinate chelate with (ln) serum ferritin (r = -0.60, p < 0.03) and with (ln) iron absorption from ferrous ascorbate (r = 0.71, p < 0.006), suggesting that iron bis-glycinate chelate absorption is indeed regulated by the iron stores of the body.