Relationship between cord blood levels of IGF-I and ferritin in healthy term neonates

Objective: We hypothesize that the balance of maternal and fetal insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) concentrations contributes to the regulation of substrate distribution between mother and fetus, and may thus mediate the maintenance of blood ferritin concentration in the fetus. Therefore, the relationship between cord blood IGF-I to ferritin concentration was investigated. Infants and Methods: Twenty-six term neonates were recruited. Anthropometric measures were recorded and umbilical cord blood samples were collected at birth. We studied serum concentrations of IGF-I in relation to blood ferritin and anthropometric data in term neonates. To assess the importance of the correlation of ferritin with both IGF-I and all other parameters, multiple linear regression analysis was carried out, with ferritin as the dependent variable and IGF-I and anthropometric parameters as independent variables