IRON SUPPLEMENTATION DURING PREGNANCY AND ITS EFFECTS ON EPIPHYSEAL GROWTH PLATE OF NEWBORN RAT: A HISTOLOGICAL STUDY

Iron Supplementation And Epiphyseal Growth Plate

Abstract

Objective: To study the effect of iron supplementation during pregnancy on epiphyseal growth plate of Sprague dawley rat pups.
Study Design: Laboratory based randomized control trial.
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Department of Anatomy, Army Medical College Rawalpindi in collaboration with National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad, from Mar 2016 to Nov 2016.
Material and Methods: Eight female and two male Sprague Dawley rats, 3-4 months old were selected and divided into two groups and kept for breeding. Pregnant rats were divided into two groups. Four pregnant rats in each group. Group A1was control group and group B1 was experimental group. Iron supplementation was given once daily throughout pregnancy till the time of delivery. Iron was given to the experimental group in syrup form (Sytron syrup containing iron as sodium feredetate). Each 5ml of sytron syrup contains 27.5mg of elemental iron content1. The dose was mixed in water given to the animal. Maternal body weight (wt.) was recorded at the start and the end of experiment. As the rat pups were born, they were weighed and euthanized. Right femur of each rat pup was removed for the epiphyseal plate analysis. It was processed, embedded and stained with Hematoxylin & Eosin, Perl’s stain for histological study. Hypertrophy and proliferative zone length were histologically and statistically analyzed.
Results: Height of hypertrophy and proliferative zone was measured. Mean values of the heights of two zones were taken. Heights of hypertrophy and proliferative zones were considerably decreased in group B1 as compared to groups A1.
Conclusion: Indiscriminate iron supplementation to the rats throughout pregnancy without checking serum iron levels can disturb the longitudinal growth of epiphyseal plate of femur. The height of the hypertrophy zone and proliferative zone was significantly reduced in iron supplementation group as compared to the control group.

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