Nutrient supplementation does not exacerbate pathogenic inflammation in infants with iron deficiency anemia

Abstract

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a prevalent nutritional disorder with long-term negative cognitive, physiological, and behavioral effects, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Iron supplementation is the holistic strategy to treat IDA by replenishing iron stores and normalizing physiological hemoglobin concentrations. However, there is limited consensus towards whether iron supplementation can have therapeutic effects towards the clinical management of iron deficiency anemia. In this study, we compared the gut microbiome diversity between IDA infants receiving or not receiving iron supplementation, using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and bioinformatics analyses. We demonstrated that nutrient supplementation and infection status do not significantly affect microbial diversity. However, nutrient supplementation of infected anemic infants had beneficial gut microbiome changes and reduced pathogenic species. In sum, our study provides valuable insights into the effects of iron supplementation on the gut microbiome in infants with iron deficiency anemia, which could have significant implications in identifying interventions to improve the overall microbiome health of IDA infants.