Examing the relationship between the gut microbiome and Iron Supplementation in Cambodian women of reproductive age.

Iron supplementation is recommended in populations where more than 40% of women are anemic. The majority of anemic Cambodian women, however, do not have iron deficiency anemia. Therefore, supplementation may not be beneficial and may actually be harmful as iron is thought to promote many pathogenic enterobacteria. We aimed to examine the gut microbial response to two different oral iron formulations in Cambodian women of reproductive age. We performed a double-blind randomized controlled trial in Cambodian women of reproductive age (n=172) located in the rural Kampong Thom province. The women received daily ferrous sulfate (60mg elemental iron), ferrous bisglycinate (18mg elemental iron), or placebo (microcrystalline cellulose) for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was gut microbiome composition analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing and targeted real-time PCR.