Long-lasting cognitive, physiological and hematological effects in rehabilitated, early dietary iron-deficiency adult rats, and improvement by treatment with a mixture of essential fatty acids

Despite some successful interventions and the large research efforts on this topic, iron deficiency and anemia remain the most common nutritional disorders in the world today. Recently, several researchers indicated that early, induced, iron deficiency produced a long-lasting effect even if the hemoglobin and iron levels returned to normal values. Recent human studies showed that 10-12-year-old children, who were iron deficient at age 1 year, showed lower IQ scores. In this study, we tried to imitate this condition by inducing iron deficiency in rats at age 21 days, for 28 days, and then tested the rats on day 120. The former iron-deficient rats had normal hematological and motor activity values, and normal thermoregulatory response, but they were very slow learners compared to the control rats. Treatment with a mixture of essential fatty acids improved their learning capacity.