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Background: Iron is crucial for growth and development, but excess iron is harmful. Neonatal mice have elevated concentrations of circulating iron, but the source of this iron is unclear. This lack of understanding makes it difficult to optimize early life iron balance., Objectives: Identify the origins of neonatal tissue-specific iron pools using dietary manipulation and cross-fostering murine models., Methods: To determine whether tissue-specific neonatal iron was primarily acquired during gestation or after birth, pups born to iron-sufficient or iron-deficient dams were cross-fostered, and tissues were harvested at postnatal days 3-5 to measure iron content. A separate set of female mice were fed a diet enriched with the stable iron isotope 57 ( 57 Fe) for 4 generations to replace naturally abundant liver iron isotope 56 ( 56 Fe) stores with 57 Fe. To quantify the proportions of neonatal iron acquired during gestation, pups born to dams with 56 Fe or 57 Fe stores were cross-fostered, and tissues were harvested at postnatal day 3-5 to determine 56 Fe: 57 Fe ratios by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Finally, to quantify the proportion of neonatal iron acquired from the maternal diet, female mice with 56 Fe or 57 Fe stores switched diets upon mating, and pup tissues were harvested on P0 to determine 56 Fe: 57 Fe ratios by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry., Results: Perinatal iron deficiency resulted in smaller pups, and gestational iron deficiency resulted in lower neonatal serum and liver iron. Cross-fostering between dams with 56 Fe and 57 Fe stores demonstrated that ≤70% of neonatal serum, liver, and brain iron were acquired during gestation. Dietary manipulation experiments using dams with 56 Fe and 57 Fe stores showed that over half of neonatal serum, liver, and brain iron were from the dam's gestational diet rather than preconception iron stores., Conclusions: This study provides quantitative values for the sources of neonatal iron, which may inform approaches to optimize neonatal iron status., (Copyright © 2024 American Society for Nutrition. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Predicting the redox behavior of magnetite in reducing soils and sediments is challenging because there is neither agreement among measured potentials nor consensus on which Fe(III) | Fe(II) equilibria are most relevant. Here, we measured open-circuit potentials of stoichiometric magnetite equilibrated over a range of solution conditions. Notably, electron transfer mediators were not necessary to reach equilibrium. For conditions where ferrous hydroxide precipitation was limited, Nernstian behavior was observed with an E H vs pH slope of -179 ± 4 mV and an E H vs Fe(II) aq slope of -54 ± 4 mV. Our estimated E H o of 857 ± 8 mV closely matches a maghemite|aqueous Fe(II) E H o of 855 mV, suggesting that it plays a dominant role in poising the solution potential and that it's theoretical Nernst equation of E H [mV] = 855 - 177 pH - 59 log [Fe 2+ ] may be useful in predicting magnetite redox behavior under these conditions. At higher pH values and without added Fe(II), a distinct shift in potentials was observed, indicating that the dominant Fe(III)|Fe(II) couple(s) poising the potential changed. Our findings, coupled with previous Mössbauer spectroscopy and kinetic data, provide compelling evidence that the maghemite/Fe(II) aq couple accurately predicts the redox behavior of stoichiometric magnetite suspensions in the presence of aqueous Fe(II) between pH values of 6.5 and 8.5.