Effects of giardiasis on iron, hepcidin, and gut microbiota metabolites in young rats: Evidence for systemic inflammation and malabsorptive metabolic reprogramming

Description

Zahraa Fadhil Abbas, Osama Hadi Al-Obaidy, and Monyer Abdulameir Abd Alfatlawi follow, in a 2026 rat study, what giardia infection does to iron handling and body chemistry in the young. The parasite causes malabsorption, of iron, but its systemic fingerprints were murky. Thirty-six weaned male rats were split into uninfected controls, an acutely infected group sampled at day seven, and a post-infection group sampled at day twenty-one. A panel of metabolite measurements was taken.

Infected rats showed lower blood iron, transferrin saturation, albumin, and citrulline, an amino acid marking gut function. Iron storage and its regulator hepcidin fell after infection even as inflammation markers rose, and the red cell indices drifted toward anemia. Gut-derived metabolites told a story, with short-chain fatty acids down and stress compounds up. The authors argue giardiasis leaves a disturbance that outlasts the parasite's stay in the intestine.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13314328