effects of iron deficiency on iron distribution and gammaaminobutyric acid gaba metabolism in young rat brain tissues effects of iron deficiency on the distribution of iron and glutamate decarboxylase gad gammaaminobutyric acid transaminase gabat activities and gaba concentrations in different brain regions in young rats were investigated iron deficiency was induced by feeding an irondepleted diet 032mg100g in weanling rats for 3 weeks or 6 weeks the values of hemoglobin hb hematocrit ht and red blood cells rbc decreased with the progress of anemia the concentrations of serum iron in the rats fed irondepleted diets were lower than those of corresponding controls on the other hand the concentrations of total ironbinding capacity tibc and unsaturated ironbinding capacity uibc in serum were higher than those of corresponding controls these results showed that hypochromic and typical irondeficiency anemia had occurred in these rats at the same time iron deficiency also resulted in significantly low iron concentrations in the brain especially in the hypothalamus midbrain and thalamus and striatum and hippocampus although the changes in gaba concentrations in corresponding brain regions were not observed the activities of the gabasynthesizing enzyme gad and gabadegrading enzyme gabat of the rats fed irondepleted diets for 6 weeks decreased significantly this study provides evidence that iron deficiency in the brain could change the utilization and metabolism of gaba