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Tissue Iron, Copper and Zinc Levels in Offspring of Iron-Sufficient and Iron-Deficient Rats^1,2,

Adria Rothman Sherman^* and Nancy Tschiember Tissue^3,

^* Department of Foods and Nutrition, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801 and Nutrition Program, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

To study the effects of iron nutriture on tissue iron, copper and zinc contents, we fed iron-deficient or control diets to pregnant rats and their offspring. Pups were weaned to the same or opposite diet as that fed to their dams, yielding four groups: control-control (CC), control-deficient (CD), deficient-control (DC) and deficient-deficient (DD). Offspring were killed at 2, 21, 30, 60 and 90 days of age. Iron deficiency, induced by feeding a 5 ppm iron diet to the dam and/or to the weanlings, resulted in impaired body growth, lower hemoglobin and hematocrit levels and reduced iron levels in liver, spleen and kidney of the offspring. Two-day-old iron-deficient pups had hepatic copper levels 1.5-fold higher than control pups. By the end of the suckling period, hepatic copper levels in iron-deficient pups were 3-fold greater than those of control pups. Hepatic copper concentration in control-fed rats (CC and DC) declined with maturation. In deficient rats (CD and DD), this normal decrease in hepatic copper did not occur and in CD rats, there was a progressive accumulation of copper in the liver. Renal zinc concentrations were lower in CD and DD than in control-fed animals at 60 and 90 days of age. These interactions among iron, copper and zinc may assume clinical importance since iron deficiency is a common nutritional problem.

KEY WORDS: • iron deficiency • copper • zinc

¹ This work was supported by Grant No. HL 18712-03 from the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health; and by Hatch project No. 60-337, University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station.

² Presented in part at FASEB meetings, April 1979 in Dallas, TX Sherman, A. R. & Tschiember, N. (1979) Tissue copper levels in offspring of iron-deficient rats. Fed. Proc. 38, 453 (abs.).

³ Present address: Kellogg Company, Battle Creek, MI.

Manuscript received 29 July 1980.

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