QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Baggs, R. B. Articles by Miller, S. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Baggs, R. B. Articles by Miller, S. A.

Nutritional Iron Deficiency as a Determinant of Host Resistance in the Rat^1,2,

Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

The response to infection with Salmonella typhimurium was studied at 42 days in rats fed various levels of dietary iron. Rats fed iron-deficient diets after weaning were more susceptible to challenge with S. typhimurium, with the greatest morbidity and mortality observed in the marginally deficient animals. Preweaning fron deficiency decreased the rats' ability to resist the stress of infection, even if a period of nutritional rehabilitation intervened. The iron-deficient rats had fewer myeloperoxidase (MPO)-containing cells in the lamina propria and submucosa. Phagocytes isolated from the peritoneal cavity of iron-deficient rats were as capable of exerting a bactericidal influence on Salmonella in vitro as are cells isolated from iron-adequate animals. Iron-deficient rats appear unable to produce MPO-containing cells in sufficient quantity to withstand the stress of infection.

KEY WORDS: • iron • salmonellosis • myeloperoxidase

¹ Supported in part by Public Health Service Research Fellowship no. 4 FO2 GM44,948-03. Taken in part from a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, M.I.T., by R. B. Baggs.

² Presented in part at the American Institute of Natrition. FASEB, Federation Proc. 31: 711 (1972). abstr. no. 2797.

³ Present address: Harvard Medical School, New England Regional Primate Research Center, 1 Pine Hill Road, Southboro, Mass. 01772.

Manuscript received 7 March 1973.