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Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331
Using ceruloplasmin levels as the criteria, experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of some copper antagonists with rats. The addition of 100 ppm Cd, 500 ppm Mo, 200 ppm Ag, and 10,000 ppm SO4 to a diet containing 6 ppm copper significantly reduced the plasma ceruloplasmin levels. Mercury had no effect on these levels and it took the addition of 8,000 ppm Zn to significantly reduce the ceruloplasmin levels. When rats were fed low copper diets with Zn, Cd, Mo, Ag, or SO4, more copper had to be injected in order to reach the same ceruloplasmin levels as in rats fed the low copper diet without these elements. The results indicate that Ag is the strongest copper antagonist followed by Cd, Mo, Zn, and SO4 in descending order. Evidence was presented that Cu as Cu-Mo complex was less available for ceruloplasmin synthesis than Cu as CuSO4.
Manuscript received 30 September 1969.