Table 1.

Characteristics of rat pups after fetal/neonatal copper and iron deficiencies.

	Exp. 1 (P12)			Exp. 2 (P10)			Exp. 3 (P15/16)
Characteristic	Control	CuD	FeD	Control	CuD	FeD	Control	FeD
Hemoglobin, g/L	112 ± 1.6a	87.0 ± 2.3b	51.2 ± 1.9c	118 ± 2.2a	96.4 ± 2.2b	58.2 ± 4.0c	105 ± 3.3a	41.3 ± 5.9b
Serum iron, μg/mL	1.53 ± 0.13a	0.63 ± 0.05b	0.42 ± 0.05b	1.52 ± 0.15a	0.82 ± 0.08b	0.31 ± 0.04c	0.94 ± 0.05a	0.29 ± 0.08b
Ceruloplasmin, U/L	55.4 ± 6.6a	< 0.3b	40.3 ± 3.6a	46.2 ± 3.0a	4.91 ± 0.55b	27.5 ± 3.6c	NM	NM
Brain iron, μg/g	10.9 ± 1.1a	6.78 ± 1.20b	4.39 ± 0.41b	7.65 ± 1.63a	5.40 ± 0.39a	3.37 ± 0.08b	NM	NM
Brain copper, μg/g	1.16 ± 0.04a	0.48 ± 0.01b	1.60 ± 0.06c	0.93 ± 0.02a	0.51 ± 0.02b	1.18 ± 0.03c	NM	NM

Data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 4–10 for Exp. 1, n=5–9 for Exp. 2 and n=5–6 for Exp. 3). Within a specific row for each experiment, means not sharing a common superscript are significantly different (P < 0.05) by one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s or Scheffe’s multiple comparison test (Exp. 1 and 2) or Student’s t-test (Exp. 3). Statistical comparisons were not performed across experiments. NM, not measured.