Alteration of glucose metabolism and increased fructosamine in iron-deficiency anemic rats

Abstract

Male weanling Sprague-Dawley International Golden Standard rats (74.1 ± 0.8 g) were divided into iron-adequate (IA, n = 12) and iron-deficient (ID, n = 12) groups. After 5 weeks, animals were fasted for 24 h prior to the experiments. Hemoglobin (53 ± 4 g/L) and hematocrit (19.9 ± 1.0%) values were significantly reduced in ID rats. Serum triacylglycerol (0.90 ± 0.86 mmol/L) and glucose (3.0 ± 0.1 mmol/L) in ID rats were elevated significantly in comparison to those variables in IA rats (168 ± 5 g/L, 47.9 ± 0.4%, 0.57 ± 0.06 mmol/L, and 2.7 ± 0.1 mmol/L, respectively). In addition, Glycosylated serum proteins, as fructosamine, (1.33 ± 0.07 mmol/L) were also significantly higher in ID rats relative to IA rats (1.10 ± 0.04 mmol/L). Relationships between fructosamine and hemoglobin, hematocrit and relative epididymal adipose weight in all rats displayed significant correlation (r = -0.490, -0.507 and -0.474, respectively). Based on these findings, we could not exclude the possibility that ID status leads to impairment of glucose metabolism.