Sex-Specific Effects of Early-Life Iron Deficiency and Prenatal Choline Treatment on Adult Rat Hippocampal Transcriptome

Fetal-neonatal iron deficiency (ID) causes long-term and sex specific neurocognitive and affective dysfunctions. This study aims to illustrate sex- specific transcriptome alterations in adult rat hippocampus induced by fetal-neonatal ID and prenatal choline treatment. Hippocampi were collected from 16 female rats at postnatal day 65 (P65) and analyzed for changes in gene expression. Rats were fed one of the following diets: iron suficient (IS), iron suficient with choline supplementation (ISch), iron deficient (ID) or iron deficient with choline supplementation (IDch). There were 4 biological replicates per treatment. The same experimental design was applied separatedly to 16 male rats.