REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1637398
This article is part of the Research TopicImpact of nutrition on brain healthView all 9 articles
Effects of prenatal iron deficiency on neurological development and related disorders in offspring
Provisionally accepted
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
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The fetal origins of adult disease (FOAD) hypothesis suggests that a variety of adverse stimuli during critical development stages can impair fetal organ structure and function, thereby increasing the risk of disease later in life. Iron affects fetal growth and development by participating in oxygen transport and electron transport, and acting as a cofactor of enzymes that affect enzyme activity. Fetal iron deficiency is caused by a variety of factors during pregnancy, including maternal low iron intake, maternal obesity, diabetes, smoking, prenatal stress and prenatal alcohol exposure, which disrupts fetal brain development and is associated with neurological disorders in offspring, such as cognitive impairment, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and autism. However, the mechanisms by which maternal iron deficiency leads to abnormal neurological development as well as cognitive impairment and psychiatric disorders in the offspring remain unknown. In this review, we summarize the causes of prenatal iron deficiency, the effects of iron deficiency on brain development and behavioral phenotypes, and potential molecular mechanisms.
Keywords: iron deficiency, Pregnancy, fetal origins of adult disease, Neurologic development, offspring, Behavior
Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Shi, Sun and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Miao Sun, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Bin Wang, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
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